Violet Haze
by Onyx-and-Moonstone
Summary: Fang get's injected with a paralyzing drug. Max has to save him, and we all know how she is about saving the IMPORTANT stuff.
1. Prathenatrim

**Violet Haze**

Chapter One

Fang POV

"Open up, little birdies. We've got something' for ya!" The gruff voices laughed hoarsely outside the abandoned concrete building. A heavy boot connected with the metal door, producing a deafening thud that echoed throughout the empty room.

"Outside, now." Max commanded, taking leader role, smashed out the window pane and practically threw Angel out into the frosty winter air.

Out in the air, Max headed the flock toward a dense forest. The erasers were quick to get in the air.

"Fang on my right. Gazzy and Iggy on my left! Angel and Nudge, up top!" Max shouted, turning to face their attackers.

There were eight of them. Not a big deal, right? No, not right. They had guns. Not bullet guns, plastic guns with purple liquid-filled tubes. This was not good. Eighty feet away.

"Max," I yelled, flying to her as quick as I was capable of doing. "Look at the guns, we can't fight them. Whatever that stuff is will take us out." She nodded her reply, seeing the glittering substance.

"Guys! Get away from here _now_! They have guns!" She screamed, fear emanating from her voice. She pointed to the forest below, and they dove into its welcoming branches. She shot after them, me following.

A hissing sound tore my eyes from her fleeing form. Just as I turned my head back to the mob, a dart struck my neck. Stunned, my wings faltered and I tumbled into the canopy of green. I hit the trees before I had time to react. Throwing my arms over my face, I fell, completely at the mercy of gravity. Branches clawed at my body, leaving bloody gashes. I felt the ground approaching underneath my wounded form. I hit it with a horrible thump. The only grace nature had granted me was a mossy glade to soften my plunge.

The pain was unbearable. The force of the fall sent shocks of pain riveting through my body. I dared not open my eyes, even as I heard my flock approaching, I did not stir. My arms were no longer on my face, I must seem dead to them.

"Fang, oh God, Fang!" Max yelled, gently placing two fingers on my neck, searching for a pulse. I groaned and opened my eyes. The only thing I saw was her worried face, leaning over mine. I started to move my arm to wrench out the dart that was still embedded in the back of my neck. She snapped out her own arm to stop mine from moving.

"Don't move, is anything broken?" She asked, her eyes flitting over my body. I could hear Iggy moving the others away from me. It must be bad.

"Max," I croaked. "A dart, in my neck." She ran her fingers along the back of my neck. When she located the dart, her gentle fingers plucked it from my skin.

"What is this?" She asked, worry spreading across her beautiful face. I shook my head. Whatever it was, it was working fast. My tongue began to dry, my eyes starting to flick back and forth involuntarily. Her eyes filled with horror as she watched the drug take its effect. My stomach began to revolt in its place. My throat was starting to deprive me of my air. My spine went rigid. I knew what was coming. I wasn't going to survive this. Before I…went, there was something I needed to tell her.

"There's something you-you have to know before I g-go. I love you." Darkness seeped in around me as I professed my love to her for the first time, and probably the last.

Her dark eyes weighted down on me as they widened to dangerous sizes. "Don't strain your self, rest, _please_. You aren't going anywhere." She began to sob. "You're going to be okay, Fang, listen to me! You're going to be okay!" She was yelling at me, holding my face in her velvety hands. The ones I'd longed to hold. Why hadn't I told her sooner?

Max POV

_Max, it's Prathenatraz. He will remain in a paralyzed state until you inject the antidote, Prathenat_rim.

For once, my Voice actually gave me something useful to go on.

_**Where?** _I mentally asked it.

_You know where. Prathenatrim is coal black, you won't miss it. _

_**Yeah, I guess I do know where, just the place I was itching to go back to**. _

Fang POV

"Fang, just hold on, okay? We're gonna fix this. I know where to go," Max said. My whole body had begun to numb over. She looked so worried, I went to grab her hand, but nothing moved; not a finger. _Oh my God! I can't move! I'm almost done! _

"Max, I can't-" I started to say, but my tongue resisted and cut the words from my mouth.

"Fang, you're going to be paralyzed until I get the antidote. Don't worry, we'll figure all this out. Iggy!" She practically screamed his name. It was the last thing I heard before blacking out.

Hey, everyone who reads this, review. Wether it be good or bad. Thank ya.


	2. Cabins are safe, right?

Chapter Two

Max POV

"Fang…" I have to hurry. "Iggy!" I screamed again. _What was taking so long?! _He rushed over and checked Fang's limp figure. His lighter-than-a-feather fingers ran along his bones and muscles.

"I, um, maybe a broken rib," he said when he was finished. _Not too bad of an injury considering the fall._

"Guys come on! We need to get him away from here. Who knows how long it will be until the erasers show up!" Both Iggy and I picked him up and started to haul him through the forest.

But it was obvious what had happened. After the Erasers successfully injected Fang, they no longer needed to pursue us. They knew we would go to the School to get the cure. _Which is exactly where I'm going. _

"Let's find a cave or something," Gazzy suggested as he ran up to me. I heard Nudge gasp as she came up behind him.

"Oh my God! Max, is he going to be okay?! Look at all that blood! Is he- what happened? He fell?! Fang never falls! Oh my-"

"Nudge we're gonna save him!" Angel yelled. "I'm going with you, right Max?" My baby asked with huge blue eyes.

"Unfortunately, yes, Angel. I'm going to need you to _persuade _someone to give us the antidote," I said, still uneasy about her skill, but Fang needed it. We needed it.

"What are we going to do with Fang while we're gone?" Nudge asked innocently.

"You three are going to stay with him. He'll need protection." I said, knowing full well that they weren't going to like this one bit.

"What! No way!" Iggy cried.

"Yeah, we wanna help! We can blow those suckers up!" Gazzy yelled, standing indignantly next to Iggy.

"Guys, I know it doesn't sound fair, but _this_ is how its gonna be this time," I said, using my 'like it or not' tone.

_Good, Max. Don't be a pushover. They would just be hindrances. _

_No member of my flock is a hindrance_, I mentally screamed at my Voice. I was about to get in a heated argument right then and there, but Nudge's excited voice stopped me.

"A cabin!" Nudge said, pointing up through the trees.

"There. You'll even have a snazzy cabin to stay in." I sneered. I am _so not _in a good mood.

We got to the small cabin in 4 minutes time. Fang weighs a ton! We leaned against a tree to check out the little house The cabin was… picturesque_, not exactly a word I use most days. _It was a little log cabin with a thatched roof. In summer, the land would be covered in wildflowers, but not during this icy winter. I could see dark green curtains inside. The small porch was the length of the cabin and had two crude wooden rocking chairs on it.

"Gazzy, see if there's anyone in there," I commanded. He ran, crouched down, to one of the side windows. After a few seconds of peering through that window, he ran around the back of the house peeking in all the windows before coming back to us.

"It's empty. Maybe it's a summer cabin," he suggested. _I sure hope it is._


	3. Raviolis

Max POV

"Okay come on, let's get him inside," I said bracing Fang's dead weight, bad choice of words, against mine. With everyone's help, we hoisted him up the four stairs that led up to the porch.

"Iggy, it's locked," Nudge said as she jiggled the doorknob.

"I'm coming," Iggy said as we sat Fang down on a rocking chair. It creaked and moaned in protest. Iggy made his way over to the door and pulled his lock picking set out of his jacket pocket. As Iggy was working on the lock, I pulled off Fang's backpack as gently as I could. Everything inside was completely crushed, since he'd landed on his back. I was so glad we'd stuck Total in Iggy's pack.

"Come on," he said after unlocking it.

"Help me, Ig," I grunted, trying to pick Fang up on my own. He got up and walked over to me. "Log!" I warned a second before he tripped over it. "Sorry."

"S'not your fault." He regained his balance and helped me carry Fang into the lavishly decorated living room.

"Clear the couch," I grunted, still struggling under Fang's bulk. They threw the stiff, pointless, decorative pillows off the couch. "Left," I instructed Iggy so he wouldn't hit a brass and glass coffee table. "Here." We eased him down onto the couch as gently as possible.

I heard Nudge rummaging around in the kitchen. Of course, where else would she be?

"Any food in there?" I asked her, checking Fang over again. I was just happy he had a pulse.

"Yeah, some, like, dry apricots and Spaghettios. Oh! And here's some canned green beans and black beans. Ew… and some more power bars in the drawer here…" She went on to list a few more non-perishables, but I tuned her out. Iggy and Gazzy went in to investigate when they heard canned raviolis. I can't stand those things.

"Angel, could you get me some water?" I asked. She nodded and hurried off to the kitchen. She came back holding a blue mug filled with ice-cold water. "Thanks. Get something to eat, we're gonna leave in a few minutes." She nodded and walked slowly back into the kitchen. "Oh, and Angel, get Total some food and water." she yelled 'okay' from the kitchen. We were alone.

"Fang, you need water. I don't know if you can hear me…but Angel and me are going to go get the cure. We're gonna leave pretty quickly. Don't worry, it'll be okay. Here, drink this." I put the cup to his lips and let it trickle in a little at a time. It seemed to go down okay, but I didn't want to overdue it, so I set the mug on the coffee table. "And Fang…about what you said earlier…about, you…said you loved me," I could barely choke out the words. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything back…you scared me, falling through the trees like that. I could see you falling through the limbs, but you were falling so fast. I didn't want to loose you…and when you said that, it showed me how close you were to dying…and Fang, I don't know what I would do if that, if you…never mind. We'll get the antidote. It'll just be a day, at the most!" _I hope._ "I mean we're already in California. We're only a half a day's flight from the School. So don't die, okay?"

I looked at him for any reaction to my jumbled little speech. None came. Biting my lip, I stood up from my seat next to him on the couch.

"Bye, Fang," I said, then leaned down to kiss his cheek. I turned to go into the kitchen. "Ange, you almost ready?" I asked, grabbing a couple handfuls of powerbars to stuff in my pack.

"Yeah, Max. Hey, did you want some raviolis?" she asked with a grin, knowing full well that I hated them. I shot her an 'are you kidding me' look. I like the real ones, but canned raviolis just don't do it for me.

"Come on, we need to get goin'. Iggy's in charge 'til I get back. 'Kay? Iggy, no bombs or anything like that, understood? This isn't our place, so _try_ not to make a mess. If erasers show up, get Fang somewhere safe, but try not to go too far off, I wanna be able to find you guys when I get back." I grabbed Angel's hand and we said our goodbyes to everyone.


	4. Stop reading my mind!

Violet Haze

Chapter Four

Max POV

_Flying. Even through all the erasers and scientists, being able to fly makes it totally worth it. _

"I agree," said Angel. She was shooting through the air in a spiral pattern, looking like she didn't have a care in the world; like she wasn't a mutant bird kid heading toward a living nightmare. Blonde locks flowed behind her in the cold winter wind.

"Angel, can I ask you a favor? Can ya please not read my mind for awhile? I need to think some things over."

She stuck out her bottom lip, but agreed. "Okay…" She tightened her belt around Celeste and focused her attention on something deep within the patchy green landscape below.

_Need to think? About saving the world, perhaps?_

_No, about saving Fang! And I'd like a little privacy to myself for awhile. _And amazingly, it left me alone!

_I know what you're thinking; I never told Fang how I felt about him. I can't tell him! I mean, of course I like Fang, but he's my _brother!_ So what's all this nonsense about me not telling him how I really feel? Especially when he could be dying! Yeah, I don't know. I guess if I ever do tell him, I don't want it to be because I thought he was dying. But right now, I have to focus on getting that cure. What was it, Prathentalin? No, Prathenatrim! I cannot forget that. _

_So, um, I guess when we get to the School, we'll find some indiscreet way in, and Angel will make an eraser or a whitecoat show us where the antidote is. Simple enough, assuming nothing goes wrong…which it most likely will…well, whatever. I've always got my famous, spur of the moment plans. _

"So, Ange. We haven't really been alone together, have we?" I asked Angel, giving her a sad smile.

She smiled back. "Nope, not really."

"I'm sorry about that. I guess I don't need to tell you how hectic things have been." Then after a pause, "So, how have you been doin' lately?" I asked lamely. I guess it doesn't get much more generic than that. She busted out laughing.

"Oh, just peachy," she answered, still giggling. "So, Max. What are we going to do when we get to the School…?" she asked, and by the sound of her voice, I knew she'd been reading my thoughts earlier. _Great, and she heard about Fang. _

"Angel," I sighed. "You have to let people have their privacy. Our heads are the last private place we have. Can't you let me keep that?" She ducked her head.

"I already knew about Fang…" she said, biting her nail.

"Still, Angel, it's the privacy I want. And this whole mind-control thing, it's a little, wrong, don't ya think?"

"I'm sorry!" she suddenly yelled. "And no! I don't think it's wrong! Why would I have this power, if I wasn't supposed to use it?! Don't act so goody-goody about it, you've done things much worse!"

My eyes widened. I hadn't expected her to blow up like this. Seems as though I struck a nerve. _I guess I have done things worse, but using people against their will, just seems wrong. I mean, it _is_ wrong. Well, so is killing people, but that was for our survival. _

"I use my power for survival too! I can't exactly fend off erasers by _fighting_ them, now can I?" she retorted, invading my mind again.

"Yeah, I guess so, honey. But it's not right to use it to get, _teddy bears_," I said, looking at Celeste. _I really don't want her to be angry with me. _

"I don't want to be angry with you either," she said quietly. "Ah! I'm sorry! I can't help it. I don't even have to try to hear the thoughts anymore. I just do!" she yelled at the end.

"I'm sorry, Ange. I don't want to tell you how to use your powers, especially since we're gonna need them in awhile. But could you not use them to get, toys?" I asked, heck, I pleaded. When she does these things, it only raises suspicion about us.

"Yeah, sure. Sorry about reading your mind all the time. It's like it's harder to tune out the thoughts than to read them. It's like I'm just developing my power, all over again. I used to have control over it, but I guess I just use it too much, or something," she said quietly.

"So, are we okay again?" I asked, biting my lip. She nodded and hugged Celeste to her tummy.

"Okay. So when we do get there, we should land on the roof. Then we find someone to get us the Prathenatrim," I said, trying to change the subject to something less, well, I was going to say gloomy, I think you can see my dilemma.

"Sounds good," she said. "We should be there in a few hours, right?" she asked. I nodded, then thought better of it.

"Actually, there's been something I wanted to try," I said, gliding over towards Angel. "Hold on to me. Let's see how fast we can get there!"

"Okay, just don't drop me," Angel said, but I could tell she wasn't worried. She trusted me.

I clutched her to my underside, so she was facing up. She clasped her hands behind my back. _We'll just see how this works out._


	5. Teddy bears lead to no good

Violet Haze chapter five

Max POV

Well, it worked out. Actually, it worked out quite wonderfully, because it only took us an hour to fly what was going to be three. If only I could carry my whole flock _and _fly in super speed. That might come in handy on more than one occasion.

"Woah. That was _awesome!_" Angel squealed. We were circling above the School, looking for guards and erasers.

"Yeah, it sure was," I agreed. But it was time to get down to business. "Do you see anyone on the roof?"

"No, not on the roof," she said. "Okay, well let's go there."

So we swooped down onto the roof of the building we all hated so much. **I never wanted to come back here. **

"But, we have to save Fang," Angel pointed out, matter-of-factly.

"I know. Come on, I see a white coat down there. Let's go ask him a question," I said, peering over the ledge. He was heading toward a group of cars, so Angel and I dove toward the parking lot, narrowly missing a black Suburban as we landed. He was just about to open his car door, when Angel stepped out and gave him an angelic smile.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, his eyes shifting nervously.

"I was lost," Angel said, laying on the fake post-crying hiccups. "And I was wondering, if you could go get me seven vials of Prathenatrim."

He looked at her for a minute with stone cold eyes, then they seemed to melt as he nodded.

"Of course," he said. And started to walk back into the building.

"Oh, and sir, if anyone asks what you're doing, tell them you're bringing them to Jeb Batchelder, And don't tell anyone about us," she added at the end.

"Yes, yes of course," he muttered absentmindedly. Then he turned around and jogged into the building.

Angel watched him go, holding the sad face; the moment the door closed behind him, she broke out in a huge grin.

"Ange, that was awesome!" I congratulated. She smiled at me and walked back to hide behind the suburban.

"Thanks," she said. "See, it _is_ a good power." I just gave her a sad smile. **If it's used for the right reasons. **"How long do you think it'll take 'em?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. We just wait 'til he comes back. When he does, we take the vials and scram. We need to fly back to Fang as quick as possible," I said, slumping against a bumper. "Why did you ask for seven?" I asked.

"In case anyone gets shot again. You should know, you were thinking about it on the way here," she said, quirking her eyebrows at me.

**Oh, yeah, I guess I'd forgotten. **

We'd been waiting for about five minutes, and I was starting to worry. I was just about to go barge in there and get the stupid antidote myself, when the door swung open. I unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. He had a bag in his hand, about eight inches by eight inches. He stopped short in the middle of the parking lot, and I thought Angel's effect had worn off. **Oh crap. **He looked around, confused.

"Oh, there you are," Angel called, sniffling. "I thought you'd forgotten me."

He walked over and handed the bag to Angel. She turned back to me and walked over.

"And remember, don't tell anyone what you've seen. No, wait, just forget what you've seen today," she said.

With that, we jumped into the sky and flew up high so that he couldn't see us anymore.

"Ange, check the bag," I said, wanting to make sure he'd given us what we'd asked for.

She unzipped the bag as I hovered next to her.

"There's seven, all of them are black," she confirmed. I gave her a grim smile, and she re-zipped the back.

"Can you stick it in my pack?" I turned around so she could slip it in. She did. "Okay, you ready?" **I really need to get some food, all that super speed really drained my already empty stomach. **

"Did you want a power bar?" Angel asked. I shook my head.

"No, we need to get back," I said. "Hop on." I opened my arms for her to climb into. She glided over and hugged my abdomen. I clasped my arms behind her and got ready to take off. "Here we go," I warned. So I took off and we sliced through the sky like a bullet.

It was peaceful. After all, it's a little hard to speak when flying at over two hundred miles an hour. So I just enjoyed the sound of the wind rushing past my face. We flew on like this for a half an hour. The wind in our hair. Overhead, smiled the sun. And down below-

"Max!" I heard Angel scream. "Stop!" I panicked and stopped as quickly as I could. "Celeste fell out of my belt!" she yelled, pointing down. As I was saying before, down below was _Celeste. _

"Angel, we can't stop! We have to get this to Fang." I said, trying to grab her hand.

"We can't leave her! We have to go get her!" she said anxiously. Fear was in her eyes.

"Angel, we have to come back! Come, on we've been gone almost three hours!" I tried to persuade her, but she wouldn't surrender.

"Max! We _are_ going to go down and look for _Celeste_," she commanded coldly.

"Okay," I heard myself say. **Wait, did I just agree to go look for a teddy bear? **"Yeah, of course we'll go look for her." **No! I did not just say that! This isn't me talking! Angel! Is this how her victims feel? **

"Angel!" I spat out. "Never, _ever_, try to pull that on my again!" I yelled, furry dripping from my lips. She looked like she was about to cry.

"I'm sorry! We have to go get Celeste, Max, we just have to!" I saw a tear glitter down her cheek. I still couldn't believe she'd tried to control me. _M_e Didn't we just talk about this?

_Fang still has time. _My Voice said. **Since when did it start giving me GOOD advice? **

"Okay, Angel. But we need to be quick," I relented. And guess what? It wasn't her making me say it.


	6. Breathe!

Iggy POV

"How long have they been gone?" I asked Gazzy. We were all sitting in the living room, watching the Mummy. I couldn't believe they left their satellite on all winter.

"Coming up on three hours," Gazzy said, his voice muffled in a pillow. I grunted and shook my head. They were probably just getting there. I reached an arm out to check Fang's pulse. It was faint, but steady. His faint breathing could be heard by only the most trained of ears. _It was quiet. Excuse me while I say, too quiet._ I quirked my head, concentrating on the reason why.

"Nudge, are you asleep?" Total asked. Silence was her reply. _Oh, that's why. _

I settled down to enjoy the movie, and I did; for about three minutes. Then it got a whole new kind of quiet.

"Fang," I muttered. I put my ear down to his partially opened mouth. There was no breath being sucked in. Or blown out. _No! _

I performed a little CPR, as the flock gathered around us. Nudge rubbed sleep out of her eyes and asked, "What's wrong, Iggy?" He still wasn't breathing.

"He's, not breathing," I stammered. _Crap! Don't do this to me Fang! Just wake up! Or start breathing, I don't care, show some sign of life!_

"We have to find a hospital, now!" I yelled. "Nudge, write Max a note, tell her to go to the nearest hospital," I commanded. She scurried off to write the note.

"You're both gonna have to help me get him to a hospital," I said, starting to lift up Fang. Gazzy must have come to my aid, as I felt some of Fang's weight vanish.

"Done!" Nudge yelled from the kitchen. "I'm gonna stick it on the front door!" She said as she ran past us to the front door. She had a steak knife in her hand. I would have laughed at her means of posting the message on the door, but now wasn't the time.

"Nudge, get in here and help us!" I gasped as we drug Fang to the front of the house. She hurried back in and helped on Gazzy's side. We got him down the steps successfully.

"Bark!" I heard Total yelp. He ran out of the house, just as the door was closing. He had all of our packs hanging out of his mouth.

"Thanks Total," Nudge said, immediately dropping her portion of the weight to get the packs and stick Total in one. Gazzy and I struggled once again, under Fang's complete weight. "Sorry," She apologized quietly. Slipping on her pack, she brought ours over to us and helped us put them on while trying to keep holding Fang. _Fang is not going to be to thrilled about all this when he wakes up. If he wa- No! He will, don't think like that. _

"We can't take off!" Gasped Gazzy. He was right. We couldn't all fly so close together, especially while holding a limp passenger.

"Follow this road, it lead to a main road not to far away! Maybe we can hitch a ride!" Nudge said, resuming her place next to Gazzy. So we set off that way. _Fang, just hang on. We'll get you help. Even if they can't take away the paralysis, they can make you breath. Just hang on. _

"Come on guys, up the pace! He's not gonna last long like this," I panted. We started to move a little faster, but not without strain.

I heard a car in the distance. _Yes! He's gonna make it!_

"A car!" Nudge screamed. I could tell she was bouncing up and down excitedly.

Total's POV

_A car! Fang's going to be alright! _

"Kids, what's wrong with him?" A woman with black hair stuck her head out the midnight blue truck's window. It wasn't a car.

"Can you take us to a hospital?" Iggy pleaded.

"Of course, of course. Get in, quickly," she said and opened the back door to the truck.

"Mom, what's going on?" I heard a voice ask from inside the car.

"These kids need some help," the black haired woman said hurriedly. She helped them get Fang into the backseat and Iggy, Nudge, and the Gasman hopped in. Gazzy obviously forgot I was in his pack, that's why he was never a good carrier, because he squished me in between his back and the seat. I yelped to let him know I was there.

"Sorry, Total," he apologized and took me out of the bag.

"Hurry!" I heard Nudge whine. The woman buckled herself in and hit the gas. She spun a quick U-turn on the narrow dirt road and we were headed back toward the main road.

I sat myself on Gazzy's lap and turned my sights on our saviors. The woman, as I said before, had onxy black hair, down her back. She had dazzling green eyes, now wide with panic. She couldn't be more than twenty two years old. Her blue tee-shirt was smeared with dashes of paint. The young voice I'd heard earlier was a small boy. He looked to be about eight years old. His hair and eyes were identical to his mother's. His shirt was also covered in paint, if possible, it was holding more paint than his mother's.

"What happened to him?" The woman asked, flicking her eyes back at Fang. I guess Fang must look pretty roughed up to normal people. We were just used to seeing each other all beat up. Fang's clothes were ripped and shredded in spots where the trees had clung to him mercilessly. Dried blood was caked on his wounds. He was limp and motionless. But the worst thing of all was that you could tell he wasn't breathing.

"He was attacked by wolves. A few hours ago. He just stopped breathing," Iggy said. I watched with silent eyes as they talked on.

"Wolves? Up here?" she restated disbelievingly. "I've lived up here most of my life and never seen one of those. You must be some very unlucky kids."

"How far is the hospital?" Iggy broke in, fidgeting over Fang's form.

"A few more minutes, I'm already driving eighty five," she said. Giving us an apologetic expression. "Oh, it's up around the corner, here."

She pulled to a halt at the stop sign, then proceeded forward into the Hospitals almost deserted parking lot. _Here we go._

_Review, bitte. _


	7. Provacative

**Myrah- hahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa! I am not sure why, but that really made me laugh. **

**Thanks for all your reviews everyone, keep readin!! **

Iggy POV

"By the way, I'm Kaylynn," the woman said. "This is my son, Tristan."

"Iggy," I said, mentally hitting myself over forgetting to use a false name.

"I'm Krystal," Nudge said, yanking off her seatbelt as Kaylynn pulled into a parking spot right by the emergency entrance.

"Zepher, and that's Nick," Gazzy said. .

Everyone jumped out of the car and Kaylynn whispered something to Tristan that I couldn't make out. She sprinted off into the building. _Umm, okay, thanks for staying and helping. _Nudge, Gazzy, and I started to lift Fang out of the backseat and hauled him out without incident. Tristan walked over and offered us a hand.

"No offense, but we'd probably manage better without you," Gazzy said. He was right. Tristan was only eight, how much could he help? Well, yeah, Gazzy's eight too, but he's got more strength than ten eight year olds.

"I insist," the young boy said, rather defiantly. I gave him a weird look, but scooted over to let him in. The second Tristan touched Fang, his whole body seemed to lighten. Nudge stared wide eyed.

"Maybe we won't manage better without him," she said as we moved to the entrance.

"There, there he is," a voice said in an authoritative tone. We looked up to see three orderlies rush out of the automatic glass doors with a gurney. The voice belonged to Kaylynn. She'd covered up her paint splattered outfit with a smock flooded with little green leprechauns. A stethoscope hung from her neck and she carried a clipboard under one arm. _Oh, she's a doctor. _

"We'll take it from here, kids," one of the orderlies said. The three of them heaved Fang onto the gurney and strapped him down around his waist. I saw Nudge panic and quickly muttered, "They just strap him down so he won't fall off." Her eyes went back to normal size and she nodded. They quickly wheeled Fang out of the parking lot and into the boxy building. We hurried to keep up with them, keeping Fang in our vision the whole time. Our little parade ran past the check in desk, a nurses station, a waiting room, a bathroom, and a man running out of a room, tubes trailing out of his backless hospital gown. _I did NOT need to see THAT. _

The orderlies had just pushed Fang through some double swinging doors, when a doctor stopped us from following any further.

"You can't go back there, you'll have to wait in the waiting area," he said.

"We're with him!" I burst out.

"You will have to wait in the waiting area, you would be in the way back there. Let us do what we do."

I glared at him, but turned back toward the room filled with plastic chairs. As we sat down, Kaylynn made her way over to us through the maze of furniture.

"Would you guys mind if I asked you a few questions?" she asked, sitting in the seat across from me. When I didn't answer she went on to say, "About your friend…"

"What do you need to know?" I asked, trying to hide the emotion in my voice.

"Well, first off, what is his full name? And then, how old, and if you know his blood type."

"Nick…Ride," I said. Yeah, I'm smooth. "He's fourteen and I don't know what his blood type is." Actually I did, but somehow I doubt they had it. She scribbled the information down on her clipboard. Her purple pen wiggling furiously.

"Okay, height, weight, allergies, past surgeries," she listed, biting her pen and studying the paper.

"I'm not sure of the height, around six foot. Weight…I don't know. I don't know of any allergies, and the last surgery he had was a six or seven months ago. It was a, well, it was another run in with a wild animal." I said, remembering the time when Fang was in the hospital and we'd met Anne. She quirked her eyebrows at me, but wrote it down.

"Does Nick provoke animals often?" she asked, looking back up at me.

"Umm, provoke? Yeah, I guess so, kinda." I said.

"Kinda?" she repeated, giving me a frown.

"Well, it's not him that provokes, it's more the animals provoke him." I offered. We don't exactly provoke the Erasers, they're the ones that always find _us. _We're trying to get away from them for crying out loud!

She, again, quirked her eyebrows, but dismissed it.

"Now, what are his symptoms?"

"Well, like I said, he was attacked by a wolf," she nodded. "He passed out and quit breathing. So that's when we were trying to find a hospital," I said. She nodded. All of the sudden, her head snapped up to look at me with focused eyes.

"Were you kids out there alone?" she asked, startled. _Uh oh. Great! What's our excuse?! _

"Uh, alone? No, uh…I mean, we were at our house, our parents are missionaries and they're gone on a missions trip. To Africa." I sputtered. I told you, smooth.

"What house?" she asked, frowning again.

"It's a log cabin," I said, keeping it vague.

"On that road?" I nodded. "I live on that road, I don't know of any other houses up there." I felt all color drain from my face. That was _her _house. We'd been stashing out in _her _house. Of course that would be _our _luck. Realization donned on her. I was talking about _her _house. We weren't _really _from around here. She stood up suddenly. "That's my house! Are you kids runaways? Where are you fr-" she stopped abruptly and her eyes grew big as saucers. She seemed to forget what she'd been saying. Her eyes drifted from each one of our faces to the next, pausing for a couple seconds on each one. When her gaze fell upon Total, he quirked his head. She seemed to panic. The pen and clipboard fell from her hands. Her head shook slightly and her lips trembled with unspoken words.

"No, no, where is the little girl? With the blonde hair?" she asked frantically. My eyes grew wide and Nudge gasped. Thank God she wasn't blabbing her head off.

_She knows about Angel?_


	8. Murdered

Chapter Eight

**illegallyinsane-yes it was Iggy POV. I did mess up a little on his POV. It had started out in Total POV and I changed it at the last minute, forgetting to fix some of the details, my mistake.**

Max POV

"Angel, we're never going to find it," I sighed, sifting through some more garbage. As fate would have it, Celeste had plunked right into eight acres of disgusting, disturbing, smelly garbage. The smell alone was horrible. But having to sort through other people's 'dirty laundry' was bad. And do you know what people throw away?! It's amazing! I've found full loaves of bread, the expiration a week away. I found three teddy bears, none of which were the beloved Celeste. A T.V. that probably could have been fixed. A collector Star Wars china set, _still vacuum sealed. _Some way outdated clothes. **Hello, Salvation Army! **And a lot of other things that I won't bore you to mention.

"Her. We'll find _her_," Angel corrected. She held up a pink tutu and fitted it to her waist.

"Angel, stay on task, we gotta get outta here!" I scolded. We'd already been here too long. She threw the fluffy skirt back into the rubble and continued searching. When we'd flown down, the initial plan was to fly low overhead to do a wide scan of the area, in hopes of spotting the bear. No such luck. The garbage landscape made it much too hard to distinguish anything.

I was getting sick of trudging through the filth, so I jumped into the air and unfurled my wings. I flew low enough for my arms to reach the mounds of junk and continued searching. **If we don't find her in the next three minutes, we're outta here. **

"Max…" Angel whined. She stumbled over a microwave and launched herself into the air.

_Maximum, _my Voice said, rather hastily. _Fang is in trouble. Go now. _

**Fang?! **

"Angel, we have to go _now, _Fang's in trouble!" I commanded and glided up into the sky. She did a slow 360. "Angel!" I dove to grab her hand and drug her about ten feet when she screamed, "There she is!" With a flick of her wrist, her hand was freed from mine and she dove back into the garbage. I could see her pick up a small animal and shoot back to my side.

"Thank you so much, Max!" she squealed, hugging the bear to her chest.

"Let's go!" I said and grabbed her to my underside and we were off. Back to Fang's aid.

I slowed down from my super speed and we nose dived down to the ground. Pulling into an uncoordinated landing I ran to the porch. I was just about to run inside when I saw the knife sticking out of the front door. My first thought was, **erasers!** When I read the note, I got panicky. **They're at a hospital without us! **

"A hospital?!" Angel asked. "What happened?"

"I - I don't know, Nudge didn't say what happened, just that they're at the nearest hospital," I said, crumpling up the note to stick in my pocket and stashing the knife in my pack. **It could be of use…but I probably won't use it. **

"Come on, let's find the hospital," I ordered. Running off of the porch, I jumped over the yellow grass and into the tree tops. Angel followed close behind. "Follow the road."

So we did. We flew down the road for five minutes with no end to the green trees in sight. "Let's try the other way," Angel suggested. So we turned around and headed back down the other way.

After a few minutes Angel pointed and said, "Look, the trees end there." We poured on the speed to get there and the first building I saw, the only building, was a big, boxy building. The sign out front said 'Blue Falls Medical Hospital'. **We're here, Fang. **

Iggy POV

"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to sound innocent.

"The girl, the little girl! She, she's - where is she?!" she asked again.

"What are you talking about?" I asked again. _What was with her? How did she know about Angel? _

"Wha- no, she's in danger! She's going to be- Do you know who I'm talking about?!" She asked, fear evident in her voice.

"Yes, I know who you're talking about," I said carefully. _Could this be a trap of some sort? _"How do _you _know about her?"

"I, just, I just know these things. I can't talk about it here. The point is, she is in grave danger. Her life is at stake! You, I, have to save her!" She stuttered.

Max POV

"Land behind that small building," I instructed. She did and I landed not even a second later. We ran to the main entrance and hurried up to the front desk.

"Was there a male, fourteen, with a lot of gashes on him taken in not too long ago?" I asked quickly. The woman behind the desk looked at me from behind her pink horn-rimmed glasses.

"Let me check," she muttered, not at all interested in the two of us. She flipped through the clipboard on her desk and asked, "Name?"

"Nick," I offered. **What last name did they use? Did they even use Nick for his first name?! "**Isn't there anyone with that description that was brought in?" She shook her head and looked up at me.

"You might try the emergency ward," she suggested.

"Thanks," I said, before rushing off. "Oh, wait, where's that at?"

"Down the hall, follow the red arrows on the floor. They will take you right to the check-in desk," she instructed. I nodded my thanks and grabbed Angel's hand. We sped down the hall, avoiding the gurney's and wheelchairs along the way. None of the doctors gave us a second look as they went about their business. We followed the red arrow all the way around to the back of the hospital and straight up to another check-in desk.

"Excuse me," I said. The man tore his eyes away from the glowing computer screen with reluctance.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Was there a boy brought in a little while ago, he's fourteen, has black hair, lots of gashes on his body?" I asked again, adding more detail.

"Do you know his name?" He asked while reaching for a blue clipboard loaded with papers.

"I um-" I started.

"Max!" Nudge yelled from down another hallway. I turned to see her running to us. She had a tray full of different hospital cafeteria foods. My stomach grumbled at the sight of it. A cup of Jello fell off the tray in her haste. I went to meet her halfway, Angel at my heels. "Max, ohmygosh! We didn't think you'd be here this soon! But you're here! Wow, did you guys fly in hyper speed or something? Together?! You can do that?-"

"Yeah, Nudge. Not here, kay?" She nodded and smiled broadly at us. "What happened?" I looked around for the rest of the flock. I couldn't see them.

"He, just, like, stopped breathing all of the sudden! So Iggy was like, let's find a hospital. So I left you the note- did you get my note? Oh, yeah, duh, you're here. Anyway, so we were like dragging Fang down that road, 'cause we couldn't all fly and carry him and he was too heavy for one of us to carry him by ourselves. And then we saw this truck coming down the road and we were like, help! So she took us here and she's really a doctor! Isn't that weird? I mean, we like, needed a doctor, and she is a doctor! Anyway, then the weirdest thing-"

"Nudge! Where are Iggy and Gazzy?!" I cut her off, and gripped her by the shoulders.

"They're in the waiting room, waiting for me to bring them the food. But Max, I was trying to tell you-" she said. But I was too anxious to see them that I rushed past her into the waiting area.

"Iggy!" I cried when I saw him. His head turned toward me.

"Max?!" he asked, eyebrows up. "I thought you weren't going to be back for a couple more hours." He was obviously confused and it showed on his face.

"Yeah, me and Angel tried something new. Let's not talk about that now. Where's Fang?" I asked.

"He, they took him in right when we got here. Maybe forty minutes ago?"

"Have you seen him since then?" I asked.

"No. His doctor came out and said that they got him breathing again, but they couldn't figure out why he was unconscious. We didn't tell him that he was paralyzed."

"When can we go in to see him?" I asked, taking off my pack to get out the medicine.

"They said we could go in to see him in about twenty minutes. He's in the ICU. But he's on like, full watch, since they can't figure out why he's unconscious." He said. He ran his hands through his longish strawberry blonde hair and slouched against the plastic blue chair.

"Well, I have the antidote. If we could just get the docs out of the room for a minute we can fix him and blow this joint," I said. A shadow passed over Iggy's, Gazzy's, and Nudge's face. They shared a look.

"What?" I asked. Something was wrong. "Guys, what's up?"

"I tried to tell you Max…" Nudge said from her place next to Angel. She put her long arms around Angel's shoulders.

"What? I'm not, guys. Nudge, Iggy. Gazzy? What are you guys saying?" Angel said terrified. She'd was obviously hearing something that I wasn't.

"What?" I asked again, anger creeping into my voice.

"A woman drove us here," he said slowly. I nodded, I'd heard this already. "Well, when we got here, she was filling out this information about Fang, and she starting asking where Angel was, well not Angel, she didn't know her name. And Max, she's like us. Kinda. She said Angel's going to die. Max, Angel is going to be_ murdered_!"

**Reviewwww!!!!! I love them reviews**


	9. Painting the Future

**Once again. I'm sorry about the Iggy POV. It started as Total POV and got changed at the last minute. Me forgetting to change some details. So dreadfully sorry. **

**Klegn read the rest of it!!! It's good I promise!!**

**For everyone else, thanks!!! I'm enjoying writing this fanfic!!!**

Chapter nine

MAX POV

My mouth hung open. Not in astonishment, in amusement. How could some random woman know that Angel was going to die? It's just not possible, right?

"Guys, get a grip. Angel is _not_ going to die. Just because some random chick says she can see the future, doesn't mean it's gonna happen," I tried to reason.

They didn't buy it. Gazzy stepped up.

"No, Max, you don't get it. She's _special._ Not like our special. She's an older experiment. She can _paint _the future, not _see _it. She showed us one of her paintings. It was of Fang. He was lying in the forest. Like earlier today, no, not like. Exactly the way he was laying sprawled out. She'd painted his exact cuts and wounds. She's for real, Max. I didn't want to believe it either when I first heard it. But we all believe her…and Max, can't we just talk with her some more so we can learn everything about it? What have we got to lose…except Angel…" Gazzy said. A tear escaped his pink rimmed eyes.

"Max, I'm not gonna die, right? You wouldn't let that hap-hap…" Angel managed before she started to sob. I felt my head shaking side to side slowly. **No, no one can paint the future. **

_You don't get it, do you?_

**Get what?! **I spat back angrily.

_There are others out there, ones that aren't avian-human. Who are you to say that she isn't as gifted as they say she is? Is it absurd for humans to regenerate themselves, or others? _

**Yes! People can't regenerate! **Then I thought, **Ari!**

_Oh, Max. You are more naïve than you realize. How are you going to come about saving the world if you can't see the big picture? _

**I don't want to see the big picture! I don't want to save the world! **

_Maximum…_

**We are not talking about this now!**

_But we will soon. _

"Max, come on, try to stay focused," Gazzy said.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Has it been twenty minutes yet?" I asked.

"More like six," Nudge said.

I slumped down in one of the chairs. **When was the last time I sat down? I don't know. **

"Angel, come here," I said, motioning for her to come and sit on my lap. She hiccupped and climbed into my lap. "Ange, sweetie. No one is going to get to you if I have anything to say about it. If this girl is so special, maybe she can help us."

"They all just seem so sure that it's gonna happen…" Angel said, referring to their thoughts.

"Angel, you are going to be okay," I said slowly, making myself believe it.

She looked at me with those huge, round, blue eyes. Both were rimmed with tears. I meant it. She knew it. We dropped it.

"I'm kinda hungry," she said, wiping the backs of her hands over her eyes.

"Oh yeah! I got, like, one of everything!" Nudge chirped, helping to lighten the somber mood in the room. She held up a wrapped sub sandwich to hand to Gazzy. My stomach growled angrily and everyone turned to look at me.

"When's the last time you ate?" Ig asked. An amused smile played at his lips.

"I don't know," I said truthfully.

"Have my sandwich," Gaz offered.

"No, you eat it. I'm gonna go get some more food, I feel like I could eat three tray fulls."

"Suit yourself," Gazzy said, ripping open his sub. He tore into it ferociously. Angel hopped off my lap and helped herself to some pudding and a bowl of fruit.

"I'll be back in five," I said, walking out of the room. I looked around and then poked my head back in the waiting room. "Hey, Nudge? Where's the cafeteria?"

"Follow the green arrow," she answered, her mouth full of tuna sandwich.

I nodded and found my way to a green arrow and followed it to the middle of the hospitals main building.

The café was painted in lively greens and blues. Royal blue cushioned chairs were placed around little tables. The tabletops were a swirl of deep greens, white, and blues. The floor was covered in tile. Like the tables, the floor was littered in a confetti of green, blue, and white tile. The lighting was low, making me want to curl up in one of the plush chairs and go to sleep. It looked very inviting. **Maybe later.**

I walked up to the buffet and grabbed a tray. Loading it down with just about everything on the menu, I shuffled up to the cash register. **Do I have any money? **I put the tray down on the counter and dug my hands into my pockets. I found a twenty. Good.

"Eighteen fifty," the guy behind the register said in a bored voice. I handed him the bill and he muttered, "Out of twenty…" He gave me my change and I walked back towards my flock. I started to dig into some potato salad on my walk through the corridors. I heard myself whimper in delight as the creamy food hit my tongue.

"Hey, hey kid!" Some one was calling from a room, but I ignored it. There was a shuffling of feet behind me and a hand landed on my shoulder. I would have laid them out flat if I didn't have a heaping tray of food in my arms. I whirled around to see who it was, and possibly to kick them and run.

"What?" A bit of potato flew out of my mouth and onto the shiny floor.

The woman, a doctor or a nurse, I don't know, wrinkled her nose slightly but waved it off.

"Are you with Iggy, Zepher, and Krystal Ride?" she asked. I chuckled at their choice of a last name.

I finished swallowing the salad and said, "Yeah, what's it to ya?" I put on a bored expression.

"I wanted to talk to you about the little girl, Angel," she said, motioning for me to step into the room she'd come out of. My whole body stiffened when she said my baby's name. This was the woman.

"You! You're the one who said-" I started before I was cut off.

"Not here!" she hissed. She walked back into the room, daring me to follow her. What choice did I have? If Angel was going to be killed, I would need the details. So I followed her into the well lit, but empty, patients room. Oh scratch that, there was a little boy in one of the armchairs. His features were exactly like the woman's. He looked up from the easel that he was painting on. His piercing green eyes were even more distinct than the woman's.

"Here, have a seat," she said and pulled out a stool on wheels. I gave her a blank stare and stood where I was. She shrugged and went to take a look at the boy's picture. Her face brightened at the sight of it.

"So I guess they've told you about me. Is the little girl here?"

"First things first. How's Nick?" I asked with a placid face. I set the tray down on one of the beds and crossed my arms. My stomach growled again. **Calm down, I'll feed you in a minute. **

"Oh, well, he is a peculiar case. We've got him breathing again, so he's doing slightly better. Our doctors are treating his wounds. But about his…condition, we can't seem to figure out why he is in a comatose state."

"But he's okay otherwise?" I asked.

"Well, if you can call being in a coma okay, yes. His vitals are okay."

"Good, when can I see him?" I asked.

"Well, you can go in to see him in a little bit. Now, about his…wings, where are you kids from?"

"Here's the deal. If you really can, _paint _the future, we're gonna need some help. I would do _anything_ for my fl-family. " She nodded. The boy quickly removed his canvas and replaced it with a fresh one. He began to swipe away at it furiously.

"Are you all, like Nick?" she asked. I hesitated before nodding. "Amazing…" she mumbled. "I, I mean, me and my son are gifted. I want to tell you something, but I can't unless I have your word that you won't tell a soul. Outside of your family, of course." She looked at me with pleading eyes.

"I can't do that, have any of the doctors called any agencies?"

"I'm afraid so, there was nothing I could do about it. They should be here within the hour" she said. Her eyes fell.

"Then I need to see Fa-Nick now!" I almost screeched. She gave a me a puzzled look. "Listen, I want to meet back with you, but it has to be another time. Where can we get together?" I asked quickly.

"Umm, we can meet at my house, it's on 12 Blackstem Road. Are you kids going to…" but I didn't hear what she said last because I was already running out of the room, back to my flock.


	10. What have you done for the World?

**I have just realized that I didn't put a disclaimer on my story! Dreadfully sorry. **

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own the flock. I do however own Kaylynn and Tristan. I may own Blue Falls (is that a place? if not then I own it). I do not, however own the duos gift of painting the future. That IS from heroes as SamanthaFantasyFan pointed out. I own the painting of the past though. But more of that later. I do own Tristan's voice specialty coming up in the next chapters. This disclaimer is good for the previous chapters and those coming.

**SamanthaFantasyFan** No, indeed that is not Dr. Martinez. Just some chick who I should probably give a last name to...hmm...

Thanks for the reviews guys!! And gals!

Chapter ten

max POV

As I turned the corner that led to the waiting room, I ran head-on into a huge man with a stethoscope and a clipboard. My cheeks turned bright red as the doctor turned around to see what had collided into him. He furrowed his eyebrows at me and walked away.

"Max! He said we can go see Fnick now!" Nudge said excitedly.

"Good, let's go, they called the FBI! Come on!" I said as I grabbed my pack off of the chair that I'd left it in. They all got up and ran down one of the hallways.

"He's in 412!" Iggy said, Gazzy was leading the way.

"Here it is," he said and ducked into the room. We went in after him. There was a nurse checking his IV.

"Can we have a few minutes with our brother?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, um okay," she said and scribbled something down on a clipboard and hung it off the end of Fang's bed before stepping out.

I reached into my pack and got out the antidote.

"Ig, do I have to flick the syringe or something?" I asked. I'd never injected someone before.

"No, you shouldn't have to," he said.

I nodded, **yeah okay, piece'a cake. Just stick it in his arm and push the little, knobby thing. Oh God, I hate needles…**

"Max, do you know what you're doing?!" Angel asked with wide eyes.

I didn't say anything in reply and stepped up to Fang's side.

"Sorry if this hurts," I whispered before stabbing the needle into his bicep and emptying its contents.

I took the needle out of his arm and stepped back. **How long will this take?**

_Any second now…_my voice said. It sounded like it was watching too.

Almost immediately, Fang sucked in a huge breath and his eyes snapped open. Thank God for our insanely fast metabolism. He panted and looked around with cloudy eyes.

"Max," he croaked, "don't ever take up nursing."

The flock started laughing and I smacked him lightly on the forearm.

"You could hear me?" I asked, **oh great.**

"_Every_ word," he confirmed. I remembered my speech on the couch earlier this morning. He didn't make fun of what I'd said, in fact, he looked pleased. **What does that mean?**

Angel looked back and forth between the two of us but she kept her mouth shut.

"Come on guys, we gotta get out of here!" Iggy urged, snapping me back to reality.

"The FBI is coming, Fang. Can you move, or fly?" I asked.

"Yeah," he grunted, getting out of the bed. He plucked the IV needle out of his arm and the tubes out of his nose. He looked a little pale, but he stood confidently on his bare feet. His legs were covered in a mess of gauze and tape, as were his perfectly sculpted arms.

"Where are your clothes?" Gazzy asked. We looked around the room but couldn't find anything.

"Just take my sweatshirt and we'll find something else!" I offered, tearing off my dark blue hoodie. He put in on quickly, but not before flashing the entire flock his rear end. **Oh. My. Go- **

"Fang!" Nudge shrieked. His cheeks turned bright red as he sidled up against the wall. I ran to the window and looked down at the parking lot. His room was right over the emergency entrance. **Oh crap! **There were four big, black SUV's in the parking lot.

"They're coming down the hall!" Angel whispered loudly.

"Out the window, U and A!" I demanded. Throwing open the window, I motioned for them to jump out. Gazzy and Angel went at the same time, then Nudge, and Iggy. I gave Fang a look that said 'your turn' but he shook his head.

"No way," he said. I rolled my eyes and jumped out, unfurling my wings a milisecond too soon. The fragile ends of my wings brushed the inside of the sill, ripping three of my silky feathers out. I winced and dropped about four feet. Quickly regaining altitude, I saw Fang closing the window from the outside. He swung around and pushed my feet roughly ahead of him.

I surged up to the flock and Fang caught up in a flash. **Is it just me or is he getting quicker? **

"Thataway!" I ordered, pointing in a random direction. We all started to fly off when I caught a glimpse of Iggy quirking his head back in the direction of the hospital. No one else seemed to notice. I looked back to see a man's head sticking out of Fang's room, looking furious. His head disappeared back into the room and the window slammed shut. "Lay it on guys!" I yelled, urging them to go faster. They were further ahead of me, Fang was purposely lagging behind.

The Feds were probably furious over losing us again. **Not my problem. But I don't want them trying to follow us. We can double back again at nightfall and head to Kaylynn's house. **

I saw a boulder formation on a nearby hill and said, "Let's head on over to those boulders." I pointed in the direction of the rocks and we all shifted our course in a graceful, smooth, motion.

**Well, I've been to a cabin in the woods, the School three hours away, a garbage dump that should have never been in that location to begin with, a hospital brimming with FBI agents, and I think that is the most I've ever used my super speed ever, all in one day. Pretty productive I'd say. And! I'm going to figure out if this girl is for real, and if she is, I'll even plan a way to save Angel. But she's not gonna die. Nope. Yep, pretty productive. **

_Productive? What have you done for the world, Maximum? _

**You know, I really hate the way you say my name. _Maximum! _**I mimicked.

Review all ye who read. Bitte.


	11. Bite Me

Violet Haze

Chapter Eleven

Fang POV

_Well, if that wasn't the most embarrassing that has ever happened to me, I don't know what is. _I couldn't believe I'd exposed my entire backside to the flock, and _Max!_ It's not as if I did it on purpose. That stupid sweatshirt pulled up the hospital dress they put me in. I couldn't stand it when they put on the frickin' gown to start with. I had to feel them put it on, and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it. Even though inside I was screaming at them to stop.

_So I quit breathing. They didn't have to take me to a _hospital. I spat the word with horrible malice_. I hate hospitals. I wouldn't mind if I never saw one again. No really, I wouldn't mind. _

Max had directed us toward a pile of rocks and we were just about there. Now that we're up in front of it, it's a huge twenty-eight foot rock fortress. The place was…whimsical. Dark green vines spattered with little purple-black flowers hung over the entrance to a small dark cave.

"Wow, look at these little flowers! They're so pretty! It looks like they're black, but they're not. They're really just dark purple," Nudge described. She ran her tanned fingers over the vines before pushing them aside. Apparently it was nothing special because Nudge walked in without another word.

"Who has Total?" Angel asked, searching everyone's faces, save Nudge who was hidden by a veil of greenery.

"I do," Gazzy said. "I think he's eating my power bars." Removing his pack, Gazzy unzipped the main compartment and total jumped out.

"Leave me a little breathing gap next time!" Total scoffed.

"Sorry," Gaz mumbled. I guess he forgot about that in our hurried escape from the hospital.

"Come on, guys," Max said, motioning for us to enter the cave. "Let's stay in here 'til nightfall."

So we all squished into the twelve by six rock hollow.

Max POV

Once the flock was all settled in the cramped space, I told them the plan. "Okay guys. I think we should go see what this woman has to say. She gave me her address, so we should go pay her a visit tonight. If she isn't alone, then we jet, but if it's clear, we go ahead with the plan. Now we just have to find out where Blackstem road is…" I said, getting ready to ask my Voice just exactly where it was.

"Well, we already know where she lives…" Gazzy said slowly. "It's the cabin we were staying at earlier today."

**Oh. How convenient. **

"Oh, well. That makes things easier," I said.

"So, are we gonna tell them our story, I mean, our _whole _story?" Nudge asked.

I thought about it, then said, "We can tell them where we're from, the school, I mean. They must have come from somewhere like it, and I'd like to find out some stuff about that. I don't know what all we should tell them, just let me talk and you all can fill in stuff if I say it's okay. I don't want to give too much away. But then again, they are _like _us. And we need to find out all we can about her, painting…" I said, my eyes flicking to Angel.

"So, nightfall?" Iggy asked. He had his new compact bomb in his palm and was poking it with a probe. I hate it when he plays with his bombs around everyone.

"Yeah, nightfall," I confirmed.

"What are we gonna do until then?" Nudge asked.

"Well, what do you guys want to do?" I asked. I really had no idea what we should do until dark. It's not like we carry around our ipods in our packs.

"I'm kinda tired…" Angel yawned. I was too, but you'll never hear those words come out of _my _mouth. I nodded and looked around at my flock. We'd barely slept in the wear house last night and after the attack today, I can't really disagree with her.

"Why don't we all catch up on our sleep, so we can be alert tonight," I suggested. They seemed to think it was a good idea. Fang's eyelids looked slightly heavy on his deep brown eyes. He caught me looking at him and I could swear his cheeks turned a shade redder. His eyes shifted uncomfortably. **Fang needs pants! **

"Fang! You need clothes! I forgot, sorry!" I exclaimed. "Fang, if you'll keep watch, I can go into town and get you some clothes." He nodded and I waved goodbye to the flock and exited the cave.

I yawned as the warm afternoon sun hit my back. **So where was town? **

Jumping off a boulder that stuck out of the hillside, I unfurled my wings and headed back in the direction of the hospital. Making sure to fly high above it, I set out along a wide four lane road. The wind was cold and biting, but I ignored it and continued forward.

The hospital was kinda out in the middle of forest, away from everything else. **What good was a hospital if it wasn't near any people? Come to think of it, I didn't really see too many other patients in there. Whatever. **

About three and a half miles up the road was a small town. A nice mountain town. Huge pine trees were everywhere. There were small, family owned shops and huge stores that you see everywhere. Like Dollar Tree and Longs. I spotted a Target and headed there. Dropping into a field a ways behind it, I made my way to the entrance.

Almost the first section I came to was men's clothes. I chuckled to myself at that. Fang had become quite a man, hadn't he?

I made my way over to the back of the jean section and began my search for some black jeans. **He'll need a shirt too, **I thought, remembering that under my sweatshirt was still a hospital gown. **And a sweatshirt. **

I found the black jeans and picked out a pair that looked like they'd fit Fang. Locating the shirt section, I walked toward it. I passed a mirror on the way over and caught a glimpse of myself in it before doubling back to take a full look. I looked terrible. My hair was tangled, my shirt and jeans were extremely dirty, my shoes were thinning into holes, and my eyes had dark circles under them. I blinked at myself in the mirror before walking off.

Black obviously wasn't in very high demand this winter. Every shirt I saw was red or yellow or blue. For a brief moment I seriously contemplated buying Fang some colors for once, but decided against it. I shuffled through the clothes racks and scanned the shirts. Finally I found a rack of all black. One of the shirts had a huge grey wing printed on the chest. I liked the irony of it and decided to get that one. **What size to get? Hmm, I could get a small, just so he'd have to show off those perfect abs of his… **I grabbed a medium and a large since they were two for one and since Iggy could have whichever Fang didn't want.

Sweatshirts were also mostly in bright colors, but I found more black in this section than in the shirt section. There were many to choose from and I chose a black zip-up hoodie with the words "bite me" on the front. **Appropriate, no? **

I walked toward the registers with the clothes and smacked myself. **Shoes! Socks! And, ugh, underwear. This is not what I signed up for. **

Turning around, I headed to the shoe department and picked out some simple black lace-up boots. I grabbed some white socks off a shelf and headed to the underwear. After looking around a little, I decided to have some fun. I found some black boxers with bright red lip marks all over them. I grinned evilly and walked back to the front.

Setting the stuff down on the conveyor belt thing, I got out my Maximum Ride credit card. The girl behind the register rung up the clothes and gave me a weird look. I blinked at her and she said, "Eighty-two fifty-three." I slid the card in the machine and I was on my way.

I headed back the way I'd come and I was back at the rock cave in no time. Fang was sitting by the entrance when I got back and stood up when I dropped to the ground. I handed him the bag. He muttered a thanks and walked around to the other side of the rocks.

I walked into the cave to the sounds of my sleeping flock. I smiled and laid down beside Angel. My back was to the rock floor so that I was staring up at the low ceiling.

My eyes were just about to close when Fang walked in holding the Target bag. His new outfit looked good. He narrowed his eyes at me and I knew he meant the boxers. I grinned mischievously and waggled my eyebrows at him. He rolled his eyes and sat down against a wall.

"Fang," I whispered. "Can I get my sweatshirt back?" He wordlessly threw the bag toward me, careful not to wake up Angel. I grabbed the folded sweatshirt and put it on quickly. It was pretty cold. Fang laid down with his back toward me next to the cave's entrance. **I guess he's taking first watch. **So I laid back down next to Angel and went to sleep.

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Thanks for aaaaaaaaaallllll your reviews!!! I really love 'em. Keep reviewing. Bitte


	12. A picture says a Thousand Words

Thanks for the reviews everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in **forever. **But here's the next chap. I'll try to update more regularly.

Chapter Twelve

Max POV

"I smell rain," was the first thing I heard when I woke up. It was dark outside and the flock was sitting in a circle, eating power bars. Iggy was saying how he could smell a storm coming in and Nudge was saying there was no way he could smell a thunderstorm.

I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The flock looked at me as I walked over to their little circle.

"Power bar, Max?" Gazzy asked. I shook my head and reached for my pack. I'd had enough power bars. I needed meat. There was some turkey jerky in my bag so I got it out and gnawed on a slab of dry meat. Nudge wrinkled her nose at it. I was the only one in the flock who liked turkey jerky.

"So when are we gonna get goin'?" Angel asked. Celeste was snuggled safely in her waistband and seemed to be staring at me. I made a face at the grungy bear. It really needed a good cleaning.

"Well, I'm ready now. Is everyone ready?" I asked, looking at every member of my flock. "What time is it?"

"I'd say about nine," Iggy said. **Dang, I've been out a long time!** Angel simply nodded and finished off her peanut butter energy bar. "And I think we're all well ready." The rest of the flock nodded in agreement.

"Well, okay. Let's jet," I said, stuffing the stiff food back in my bag. Everyone gathered up their stuff and we were off again. I headed in the direction I remembered the little cabin to be in and the flock followed. Everyone seemed a little grim. Apparantly Iggy had filled Fang in on the stuff with Kaylynn and her son while I was asleep.

No one spoke during the flight. Not even Nudge. Bless you, child. I had enough to think about without her blabbing our ears off.

When we got near the cabin, we landed in a tree that had a perfect view inside the house. I saw Kaylynn sitting on the couch watching T.V. Tristan was leaning against her shoulder. What I wouldn't give for a few days like that. They looked relatively calm and no one else was about. So we dropped out of the tree and walked up to the front door.

I knocked without hesitation and waited for someone to open the door. It felt strange knocking on a door that we had broken into just this morning. Well, that's my life. Full of weird 'probably gonna bite'cha in the end' coincidences.

There were muffled foot steps behind the wooden door. "Who is it?" she asked.

"Max," I said shortly. The sound of metal scraping across metal could be heard as Kaylynn unbolted the door. It opened inward to reveal a beaming woman in her pajamas. She smiled broadly at us.

"I didn't think you were going to come tonight," she said, gesturing for us to come into the living room. "Tristan, shut off the T.V. and go get mommy's painting, the rainy one." The little boy pulled himself off the couch and hit a button on the remote before walking off down the hallway. "Sit, sit."

The younger kids and Iggy sat on the couch while I took an armchair. Fang stood, arms crossed beside me, his back to the wall.

"When you kids left, the hospital was in a panic," she chuckled. "We left as the FBI started to question the doctors. We didn't tell them anything." Tristan came back with not one, but two canvases. He hopped on his mother's flannel covered lap. "Tristan painted this earlier today, he started it when we met you this afternoon and finished it here." She gestured to me and held up one of the canvases. She turned it around for us to see.

It was me. Me on the beach. Me with a shell in my hand. Me with the bloody forearm. Me with the flock running at me. Me with the tears falling down my face. It was Fang too. Fang with that angry gleam in his eyes. Fang with his face contorted with rage. Fang reaching for my arm to yank the shell away. It was a snapshot of one of the most terrible moments in my life. Fang had been so angry, and scared…and this boy had painted it perfectly. It really was a beautiful piece, in a morbid 'I almost killed myself' way.

I single tear rolled down my cheek and I could feel Fang stiffen beside me. I wiped the liquid drop off of my face before anyone could see it.

"How did you know about that?" I asked trying to keep my voice under control. My eyes still glued to the painting.

"Once I've met someone, I can paint something important from their past," the little green eyed boy said. I was taken aback. His voice was like liquid. I hadn't expected such a sound to come from a little kid.

"My son and I are both able to paint the future and the past," Kaylynn said.

"I've never heard of two mutants sharing the same power," I said dumbfounded. None of us have the same powers, but I guess there are others out there that might.

"Most mutants are given different gifts so that they are all unique," she explained. "But when a mutant reproduces…the child inherits his parent's gifts and the ones he was meant to have." The boy beamed at us and his eyes sparkled. He poked a stubby finger into a cup of juice and the liquid turned to ice.

"Woah! That's so cool!" Nudge squealed. Angel's and Gazzy's eyes were as big as saucers. Fang was quick to explain what had happened, but his face remained stolid.

"That one's my mommy's," Tristan said, trying to yank his finger out of the ice. "I have super strength and I can throw my voice!" He said excitedly.

"Throw your voice?" Gazzy repeated. As if to demonstrate, Tristan put his right hand up to his mouth and whispered something inaudible. Closing his fist quickly, he threw his hand out toward the kitchen.

Almost immediately, we heard his whispered words, "This is how I throw my voice," coming from the kitchen.

"Now that I could use!" Gazzy said greedily. It was true. Between his uncanny way of imitating any sound and being able to throw that sound anywhere, it could be a lethal combination. The boy smiled and yawned. His mother didn't seem to notice. She looked all too pleased at her sons abilities and looked at him with loving adoration.

"Not to be rude, but could we have a look at that painting now, the one of Angel. I think I believe it now," I said, annoyed at all the chit-chat. The woman nodded and turned the other canvas around for us to see.

It showed another snapshot. One that hadn't happened yet. The flock, minus one, were huddled around a small girl. That was my Angel. She lay on the wet brown grass, eyes closed, mouth slightly parted. Her drenched head was hanging lazily to her right shoulder. A dark pool of blood had gathered just under her left shoulder. More blood was on the grass surrounding her. Rain poured down on the six children. Parts of their faces could be seen, but all of mine was visible. I was staring up in the sky with an anger twisted expression.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at the lifelike painting. It was even more realistic than Tristan's painting. Maybe it was because she had more practice. It felt like I was there, looking on at this event. I felt tears pushing at the back of my eyes.

"Has any of your paintings ever not come true?" I asked, hope in my voice. She looked at me with sad eyes.

"No. They have all come to pass. Some took years. Others took hours. I painted this one four days ago." I bit my lip to keep from crying. My eyes shifted to those of my flock. Fang's jaw was set tightly. Nudge was teary-eyed. Gazzy was trying to tell Iggy everything about the picture and hug Angel at the same 

time.

Everyone else's expressions I could relate to; but not Angel's. She was sitting on the couch, playing with Celeste. Even Total looked sad.

"Hey, maybe it won't happen for a couple years," she said with false cheer. Everyone turned to look at her. She smiled half heartedly at their sad faces.

I was so upset I didn't know how she was talking like this. I couldn't lose my baby, not again. Why was she acting so laid-back about this? Thinking about this made me angry. I glared at the picture before stalking out the front door.

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Okay, get to 55 reviews (looks hopeful) and I'll post the next chap. Review, Bitte.


	13. Leave me Alone

Thanks again for the reviews. Not quite 55, but maybe after this next chapter.

Violet Haze

Chapter Thirteen

Max POV

Wiping a tear from my cheek, I jumped off the porch without looking back. Fang came through the door as I unfolded my wings. I knew it was him because no one else ever follows me. I flew up into the black sky. There were rain clouds, but no rain yet. No stars were shining and the moon was hidden.

Someone tugged at my foot as I surged up. No way did I want to talk to anyone right now. So I poured on the super speed. Nine hundred feet up, I broke through the clouds. It was clear up here and I went back to normal speed. Fang would be here soon.

I felt a stray wind coming at me from behind. It was Fang. **He shouldn't be here _that_** **soon! **

I whirled around at him, my teeth grinding. "How come you're so fast all of the sudden?" I demanded, poking him hard in the chest. He grabbed my hand to stop it from jabbing him. I tried to tear my fist free from his grip but it wouldn't budge. That only made me angrier and soon I was pounding his chest with all I was worth.

He grabbed my other hand and spun me around so I couldn't hit him anymore and so that my back was to his torso. Tears were blinding me and I couldn't wipe them away because Fang still had my arms in a death grip across my chest. My wings were pinned between us at odd angles. Fang was hovering for both of us.

Everything that had been building up inside me boiled over and I began to sob. My whole body shook and my head fell to my chest. Fang's strong arms turned me around slowly 'til I was facing him again. I couldn't even flap my wings I was sobbing so hard. His arms snaked around my back and he held me in a tight hug.

"You aren't gonna hit me again, are you?" he asked quietly. I threw my arms around his back before crying some more. **God, what's wrong with me? **I was so embarrassed but couldn't help myself. I needed someone right now. Fang seemed as good a person as anyone, maybe better.

My face was buried in his black tee shirt. I finally stopped crying after what seemed like hours.

"She's just trying to deal with it, in her own way," Fang said. I didn't have to ask to know that he was referring to Angel's behavior.

"Fang," I said quietly. "I can't lose her again." I didn't realize we'd dropped a few hundred feet until we were flying right above a tall pine tree. We dropped to the ground about eighty feet from the cabin. I removed my arms from around Fang, embarrassed.

"We could fly somewhere else, get away from here," he suggested.

"But we don't know where it's going to happen," I protested, but I liked the idea. Maybe we could go to a different country.

"Would you rather stay here?" he asked, staring deep into my eyes.

I shook my head. "Maybe we could just stay the night and think about it tomorrow."

He nodded and looked back at the cabin. "Ready to go back?"

"Yeah," I said, making sure all the tears were gone, so I didn't look like I'd been crying. Even though I knew I still looked like crap. He took my hand and we walked back to the cabin. It began to rain just as we got to the porch. His hand tugged at mine when I stopped, inches away from the steps. I let the rain sprinkle over my face before walking up the stairs.

When we got inside we saw the living room empty. I started to panic, but relaxed when I heard Nudge talking in the kitchen. We walked into the small kitchen to see our whole flock drinking hot chocolate, except Nudge who was leaning against a counter talking nonstop.

She didn't stop talking even when we walked in; she just changed topics.

"Max! Kaylynn said that we could change the future! Like, if we know what's going to happen- which we do, so that's good- but anyways, we could maybe have a chance at stopping it! Then we could save Angel, and everything would be okay." I smiled ruefully at her. Maybe we could, but she said that all of her paintings came true in the end.

_Things aren't always as they seem…_

"You guys, it's getting late, we should probably get going." I looked at the green clock on the wall, it read 10:45.

"Do you kids have a place to stay? You can share the living room if you need to," Kaylynn offered.

"Oh, could we Max? I'm tired of sleeping in caves," Nudge whined. I glared at her. A disturbed look crossed Kaylynn's face. Nudge's eyes pleaded for forgiveness. That was more information than I would liked to have given out.

"We don't need any charity," I said.

"It isn't charity, it's just a warm place to sleep for the night," she coaxed. It would be warmer than the cave…

"Please…" Gazzy begged quietly.

"Okay, but just for the night, we have to leave tomorrow," I said. The flock cheered and Kaylynn smiled.

"I'll go get some extra blankets." She turned to walk down the hall and disappeared around a corner. She must have sent Tristan off to bed because the little voice thrower was nowhere to be found. We moved into the living room and Kaylynn came back with six blankets.

"Sorry I don't have any extra pillows," she said, handing each of us a blanket. I smiled my thanks and took the blanket that she offered me. "The bathroom is right down the hall, the second door on the right. Let me know if you kids need anything. I'm around the corner, the last door. Do you need anything before I go? If not, I'm off to bed. It's been a big day!" We shook our heads. She smiled and locked the front door before walking off to bed.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Gazzy said. He walked down the hallway before disappearing through a doorway.

Angel was already curled up in an armchair, her blanket and a few decorative pillows were squished up around her like a nest. Celeste was in her arms and Total was curled up next to her. Iggy grabbed the couch, saying that Gaz could share with him. Nudge snuggled up in the other arm chair, her blanket wrapped tightly around her. Fang took a spot on the floor against a wall, using his blanket as a pillow. I looked around and decided to sleep on the floor next to Angel's chair. She smiled at me and kissed me on the cheek before drifting off into sleep. Gazzy came back and laid down on the couch, opposite Iggy.

"I'm on first watch," Fang murmured.

I didn't want to worry about anything until tomorrow, so I fell asleep. The only sound in the house was my flocks soft snoring.

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Review, bitte. And see, that was ALMOST faxness! But I can totally assure you that there will be faxness coming up! Be happy.


	14. Too bad she didn't make it past Six

Short chapter!!!! And maybe we can reach 55 THIS time!!!!

_You'll never reach 55. _

Shut up. I can dream.

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Chapter Fourteen

Max POV

"Wake up guys," I said, nudging everyone into consciousness. They woke slowly. It was raining cats and dogs outside and I knew that they wouldn't be at all happy about flying.

"Uuhhhh," Gazzy groaned as I shook his shoulder.

"Come on, everybody up," I ordered. Even Fang was laying on the floor, his blanket tugged tightly over his head so he couldn't hear me. No one would get up. They just turned over and went back to sleep.

I huffed and kicked Fang in the thigh. He moved only to give me the finger before turning to face the wall. I glared at him.

"I'm gonna pour buckets of water on your heads if you don't get up!" I yelled. No one moved. I growled and stomped into the kitchen to get the water. I did not want to be here anymore.

Selecting a large glass and filling it with water, I pounded back into the living room. I picked my victim and dumped the icy water all over his head. Iggy shrieked and jumped off the couch. I grinned evilly and walked back into the kitchen to get more water. When I came back into the room, Iggy was shaking his head like a dog to dry himself off. The spray from his head got the others up quickly, so I gulped the water down myself.

"'Bout time you got up," I said. I set the glass down and picked up my backpack. "Let's blow this joint!"

I didn't think about Kaylynn as we left. Or as we were flying across the state. Or when we landed for breakfast in a town called Graytown. It did live up to it's name though. Everything was gray. The trees were gray, the buildings were gray, and the cars were mostly gray.

"Let's find some food," I said. We walked up to a building that said 'The Pancake Place' and strolled inside. Water dripped off of us as we sloshed across the tiled floor. We sat in a booth and a plump woman in a blue uniform came to get our order. We all ordered the Pancake Pleasure that included four pancakes, two eggs, two pieces of toast, and hash browns. Actually, we got two orders each.

The flock began to talk and I looked around the room. No one else was here, except us and the crew. I looked outside just in time to see a big black van pull up to the curb. Eight good looking guys got out and made their way to the door.

"Erasers!" I warned, just as the first one stepped onto the sidewalk. "Go out the back door!"

We clambered out of the booth and down a small hallway. Rain splattered us as we stepped outside onto patchy brown grass.

I heard a growl behind me and whirled with a roundhouse kick. My combat boot connected with a hairy head. It made a dull thud noise and blood began to drip down the side of his head. He growled again and lunged at me. The other erasers began to fight with the rest of the flock. Fang took on two. Iggy smacked one hard in the chest and ran away. Seconds later, the one he'd smacked blew up and eraser parts went flying. I knocked mine unconscious and went to help Fang. I cupped my hands around ones ears hard from behind before he ever saw me. Fang punched the other in the nose that promptly began bleeding profusely. He kicked it in the groin and it fell to the ground.

We ran to the others. Angel had ordered one to run headlong into the building and was convincing one that he was fighting for the wrong side. Once fully convinced, he turned to one of the others and knocked him out. Two left. They dueled it out and one went down. He was the one who was fighting for the school. It didn't take much to bring him down. I kicked him in the kneecaps with all my weight. He went down like a ton of bricks. We were just about to fly off when a sharp _pshoo! _caught our attention. Angel gasped and staggered backward. She tripped over a rock and fell. She didn't get up.

"Angel!" I yelled, running to her. Just as I got there, her head flopped to the side and her eyes closed. "Angel!" I screamed. A bullet must have hit her. On the left side of her chest, a circle of red ooze was gathering. "Angel!" I screamed again. Tears poured down my face, only to be washed away by the rain. She didn't move. Fang fell to his knees beside me. He felt for a pulse. His face grew grimmer and grimmer as he felt her throat and wrist. He shook his head slowly. I thought I saw tears on his face, but I couldn't be sure through the rain.

The rest of the flock materialized around her. Gazzy was wailing uncontrollably, Nudge was crying into Iggy's shoulder. Iggy's face was tight with pain.

"Angel…" I sobbed.

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Review!! And be happy. Bitte!


	15. Pshoo!

MaxRideObsessed: You don't _have _to be sad. I am no fan of Angel either. She's pretty much evil, or potentially evil.

Running to Stand Still: Because being happy is good for the soul! And who wants to be sad?!

marie47: Hate?! Well! For that little outburst, I think I'll postpone the next chap til Friday! Take that!

Myrah: She's dead?! When did that happen?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? No, just kidding. You shall see.

XXmaxXX: And since you said hate, I postpone til saturday! Gah. But since you're giving me a cookie...I guess I'll post tonight...

Anyway...here it is. Be happy?

Violet Haze

Chapter Fifteen

Max POV

"Max wake up!" Rough hands were on my arms. Someone's face was near mine. My eyes snapped open to see Fang staring fixedly at me. He seemed to relax slightly when my eyes opened.

"Angel," I muttered. I began looking around for her frantically.

"Max, I'm right here," Angel said uneasily. She came over to sit by my side. I was sprawled out in the middle of a carpeted floor.

"I - I thought…" my mind was spinning. **Was it a dream? **I looked into the worried faces of my flock.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Nudge asked. I just nodded. It was a terrible nightmare. One that I wish would never come true.

"What time is it?" I asked, sitting up.

"A little after eight," I heard Kaylynn say. She was leaning against a wall in the living room. Her son sat on the couch. His head in his hands.

"We should be going." I stood up and picked up my bag.

"Don't you want any breakfast?" Kaylynn asked. I, personally, didn't want any food. Not after the scare of losing my baby. I felt sick.

"I'm not hungry, and we have food," I said. "Thank you for letting us stay here and thanks for all the information you gave us." She smiled and went to unlock the door. The flock just stood in the room, looking at me.

"Get your stuff, guys," I said. They seemed to snap out of a trance and got all their stuff together. Total jumped in Fang's pack.

I walked out onto the front porch. It was raining. I shivered, thinking of my dream. I breathed in a deep breath and let it out. The flock came out onto the porch, followed by Kaylynn and Tristan. The five of them said thank-yous and we walked out onto the grass. I jumped into the air and unfurled my wings. The wet air felt good on them. The two mutants watched us from the porch as we flew up. I looked out across the endless mass of trees and wondered where to go next. Certainly not to Graytown, if that even exists.

The flock spread out in front of me as they waited to see which way I was going to go. North. I decided to go north.

Just as I was about to head off, a low growl stopped me. Déjà vu! I spun around to see an eraser flying straight at me. He caught me off guard and punched me in the stomach. I let out an 'oof' and tumbled to the ground. I saw other erasers coming in on the flock. They dropped to the ground in front of the cabin. Kaylynn ran inside, taking Tristan with her.

My stomach screamed as I tried to straightened my body. I hit the ground with an ungraceful thunk. My eraser ran at me. I jumped up just in time to dodge a right hook and kicked him in the kneecap. He groaned and dropped. I ran to my flock to help them. At least six others were there. Ari was one of them. I went to him to get him away from Iggy. I kicked him hard in the backs of his knees, forcing him to the ground. He roared and turned around. When he saw me, he grinned malevolently and lunged for me. He threw an uppercut at me but I fell back in the nick of time. Fang showed up behind Ari and kicked him in the back. He howled and turned to kick Fang. Fang easily dodged Ari's leather boot and hit him in the stomach three times. I went to help Nudge who had a black eye and three slits on her arm. Her eraser was getting the better of her. I cupped my hands around his ears hard and he fell to the ground, cradling the sides of his head. Angel made two of the erasers run into each other repeatedly until they passed out. The now lay motionless on the ground. Iggy blew two up with the same bomb just as I was about to punch one. Gazzy was holding his own against one of the last ones. I went to help him and we brought that one down too. All that was left was Ari.

He saw that he was outnumbered and jumped into the air. His wings snapped out and he snarled, "Until next time, freaks!" He turned quickly and flew away. We were left panting in the forest. None of us was left unmarked. I had bruises and welts, Fang had a huge gash on his cheek and bruises forming on his arms, Ig had bruises and cuts everywhere, Nudge had the black eye and slits, Gazzy was cradling his left arm, and Angel a slight limp to her walk.

"Let's get cleaned up," I said. Fang got the first-aid kit out and began to clean Nudge's wounds. I turned around to see Kaylynn walk timidly out onto the porch.

"What were those?" She asked with wide eyes.

"They're called erasers. Part wolf, part human," I explained. I turned to Angel. She was rubbing her ankle. "What happened to your ankle?" I asked, squatting down next to her.

"I think I just fell on it wrong." I examined it and it seemed okay. It wasn't swollen or anything.

I was a little angry that Kaylynn had just hidden in the house, watching us fight the erasers. But then again, I didn't blame her.

"Do you kids want to get cleaned up in the house?" she asked. I nodded and we all trudged inside.

We cleaned our wounds in the kitchen. She had a first-aid kit that looked like it should have been for the marines. It had everything we needed and more. After we were finished bandaging up, we sat down at the table to rest. Kaylynn brought out ham sandwiches for us to eat. She stood next to the table and nibbled on her own tuna sandwich. We all grabbed a sandwich and wolfed it down.

"Do you fight those…erasers often?" she asked. We all nodded.

"The place where we were created, they made those to hunt us and others things. They're weapons," I explained. "We meet them a lot, everywhere we go. They're the ones that put Nick in the hospital to begin with." She nodded. "I'm sorry to eat and run, but we really need to go. There's no telling when they'll be back." I got up from the table and the flock followed.

Gazzy came up behind Angel and started to tickle her; his arm must feel better. She giggled and ran around the table; and her leg. He ran after her and she ran out the front door. We went after her, a small smile on my face.

Then, just like in my dream, there was an eerie _'pshoo'_ noise. I ran out onto the porch to see Angel lying face up in the dead grass. Only this wasn't a dream!

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Review, get to 65 and I post the next!!!


	16. Guns don't kill people, Max does

**MaxRideObsessed: Yeah, props to you. I sooo wish I could paint the future. Peter cannnnnot die. At least, I really don't want him to die! That would be bad. Little bits of Peter all over New York. But I think he'll be okay, he can learn to control all the power. I have faith!!!**

**XXmaxXX: grabs cookie with feral gleam in eyes Yay! I got a cookie, I got a cookie! dances around big brown leather chair Pshoo gun noise. I dunno, it seemed to fit, and yes, it is fun to say. pshoo! pshoo! AS for longer chaps? Uh uh, no way no how. You get 'em as they are, hun. I am mentally incapable of making a long chapter. Besides, the MR books have shoooort chapters. Sometimes. **

**Running to Stand Still: WHERE THE HECK DID YOU GET 'GAZZY KILLING ANGEL'? HE'S HER SISTER!!!! That's terrible! ( Am I messing with you, or am I just being very apalled at you?) hmmm...**

**amsrule: Muy bueno!!! Yaaaay!!!! And danke!!! I love the loyal readers!**

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Chapter Sixteen

Max POV

"Angel!" I yelled, running to her side. Her blue eyes fluttered in the heavy globs of rain.

Blood had begun to gush out of a bullet wound under her left shoulder. The flock appeared in a circle around her.

"Max…" Angel gasped. Her small hand fumbled blindly over the gushing cavity. It came away covered in gore.

"Shh, shh," I soothed. Gazzy tried to stifle his sobs. He wasn't very successful. No one was. Even Fang's eyes were glistening.

Suddenly, her eyes rolled back and her head fell to the side. She went motionless. Kaylynn stood on the porch solemnly. A sad, regretful countenance on her face. Tristan watched too, from a window.

Hot, angry tears burst from my eyes. Gazzy began shaking his little sister. His sobs turned to cries of torment and sorrow. Nudge was crying into her hands. Iggy reached out to hold Angel's hand, tears cascading down his pale face.

A sound tore my gaze away from my poor baby. I looked up to see Ari walking briskly over to our group. He smiled smugly down at us. A gun was twirling around his index finger. It had a huge silencer connected to it.

I glared at him and leaped. I landed right in front of him. He looked surprised. I punched him in his ugly face with all my strength. He teetered backward. I jump-kicked him in the stomach. He doubled over. He still had the gun in his hand, so I twirled around and kicked it out of his reach. Ari tried to punch me in the gut, but I was too quick. With a quick jump, I was behind him. My combat boot connected with his back and pushed him onto his stomach. Malice and fury guided me. They made me quicker, more agile. Stealthier. He jumped up to his feet, eyes gleaming with hate.

"How dare you!" I roared, kicking him hard in the jaw. His head whipped around as he spat blood out of his mouth. "She's only six!"

He turned to face me again. A huge grin covered his face. He morphed and cracked his knuckles. "Was six."

I sprung at him again. I was moving with unnatural speed and landed a kick to his chest. The wind whooshed out of him and he fell to his knees.

"What. Is. Wrong. With. You?" I thundered, planting a punch to the sides of his head between each word. His heavy body fell back on the dirt. As he went down, his leg snapped out and knocked me on my back. We jumped up at the same time. Eyes fixed on each other.

Nothing else existed. It was just me and Ari. I couldn't see anything but his bloody, bitter, face. I couldn't see the rain or the trees. Couldn't see the cabin, my flock. I could no longer smell the fallen pine needles. Smell the rain beating down on everything. I couldn't hear the rain. Nor could I hear the heart wrenching sobs of my flock as they lifted my lifeless baby away from the ruthless rain. I could only feel. Feel the bitter hatred inside me. The hatred for Ari. For killing my Angel. My body was practically shaking with adrenaline. This time, he was going to die. And he wasn't coming back.

With a savage yell, I ran at the wolf, fists ready to slaughter. He braced himself, anticipating my attack. Switching strategies, I jumped to kick him in the groin. He caught my foot and twisted it. I moved with his counterattack and fell to the muddy ground. I scrambled forward quickly, but Ari grabbed my tangled hair and yanked me back. I grunted as he pulled me to my feet.

A smile played at his lips as he turned me around to face him. Such a stupid move. I punched him in the gut and his foul breath clouded my face. His grip released on my hair and I stumbled away.

Ari coughed while clutching his abdomen. I was slowly backing away from him. My foot caught on something and I fell backward, my hand slapping something cold and metallic. Ari seized the opportunity to overtake me and rushed over. The cold metallic thing fit perfectly in my hand. I brought it up to view. It was Ari's gun.

He didn't notice me pick it up and was just about to jump on me. The gun seemed to aim with it's own determination. Before I knew it, Ari was lying on the ground howling, hands gripping his thigh.

Gasping, I sat up. I stood up, my hands still gripping the curved metal. Ari began to de-morph as he lay writhing on the floor. I loomed over him, glaring. He paused and looked at me, terror in his beautiful eyes. He knew he was going to die. He knew I was going to kill him again. But he was wrong. As I looked down at his pathetic figure, I knew I couldn't be like him.

"I'm not going to bring myself down to your pathetic level, killing people. Just 'cause _daddy _told me to," I hissed. He growled lightly at me, fear still in his eyes. "Go, before I shoot you again. I don't have any problem shooting you 'til you look like a sponge!" I kicked him for good measure as he scrambled to his feet.

With one last hateful glare, Ari took a running take off and flew up through the trees. I watched as he flew out of sight before dropping to my knees. I was wiped.

_Angel… _my Voice reminded me.

My breath caught in my throat. How could I forget!

Rising to my feet, I turned back to the cabin. My flock wasn't there. Neither were Kaylynn and Tristan.

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**Review, bitte!!!!!**


	17. Code Blue

**MaxRideObsessed: Mas is sooo pissed. **

**Running to Stand Still: Gax hurting Ange, naw. I _always _feel like killing my sister. But that might ruin my fate, so that's a no. Dream? You shall see. I am against killing someone who will actually be in the third MR. Unless I feel 'specially mischevious...muahaha. **

**Myrah: No, I don't believe you have told me that! Danke!!**

**XXmaxXX: I am offended. You _hate _my cliffies? Well! A good chap is not complete without a good cliffhanger!! It leaves you wanting more. Diabolicle plan for Ari? Possibly, but like I said up there, I am against killing an important character. Kaylynn. I like to go to a place called Color Me Mine (have you heard of it?) and while I was wandering around the back of the store, I saw that name on a reciept on a piece of pottery. I liked it a lot. Yaaaay, cookie!! I hope it's choc-chip! **

**amsrule: Yipes! Don't cry! All will work out!!! I hope!!!!**

**Marie47: Okay!!! Here 'tis!**

* * *

VH

Chapter Seventeen

Max POV

"Max!" Fang yelled. His voice was slightly hoarse. My head whipped toward his voice. He and the rest of them were trying to pile into the woman's truck. I ran towards them. "Get in," he said tersely.

My head shook in confusion. "Why?" tears sprang at my eyes again. "She's gone!" He grabbed my arm roughly and pushed me into the overly crowded truck.

"She may have a chance!" Kaylynn said, throwing the truck into gear. Fang looked down at my hand, eyes still. He looked back through the window where I had been fighting.

"Did you kill him?" he asked quietly. The everyone in the truck whipped around to stare at me. But not Angel.

I looked at my hand too. I was still holding the gun. I shook my head. "No, but I did shoot him once." Fang looked at me with his eyes slightly widened. He was shocked. The cold metal of the gun felt uncomfortable under my hand now. I placed it under the seat, out of view.

"Can we go any faster?" I asked. If Angel had a chance, it wasn't going to be there forever. She didn't look like she had a chance, she looked dead.

"I'm going as fast as I'd dare." She hooked onto the road that led to the hospital and we were there in three minutes. Thankfully, the feds were gone.

We screeched into the parking lot. I pushed the back door open before the truck even came to a stop. Gathering Angel into my arms, I ran into the building. I ran straight up to the front desk and shouted, "My sister's been shot! I need help!" The flock and the family of two rushed in behind me. A doctor and some nurses ran out to me with a gurney and I laid Angel down on it.

"How long ago was she shot?" the doctor asked me, her eyes wide but focused.

"About fifteen minutes," Kaylynn answered. She grabbed some gloves and helped them as they hurried off down a hallway. We were left standing in the waiting room. Me feeling like my arm had just been stolen from me.

"Can they save her?" Gazzy's broken voice reached my ears. I looked down at him with tears in my eyes.

"I _really_ hope so, Gaz." That was all I could manage before sitting down in a chair. Fang sat on the arm of the chair and put his hand on my shoulder. He looked at me with his dark brown eyes and I saw his emotion. And guess what? He didn't wipe it away. He was actually letting me see his feelings. That alone almost gave me a new rush of tears. I smiled at him, then choked on my sobs.

"I can't believe it really happened," Nudge cried. She was sitting on Iggy's lap who was trying to comfort her. Gazzy turned to sit next to Iggy and practically fell in the chair.

A soft whimpering came from underneath my chair. Total peeked out and I saw wet tears on his velvety coat. **How'd he get under there? **Whatever.

"So, she may have been wrong," Fang said quietly. I looked up at him uncomprehendingly. "I mean, the picture just _looked_ like Angel was dead, so we just kept telling ourselves that she was gonna die, right?" I nodded, starting to get it. "She might make it through okay." A huge smile lit up my face.

"Fang! Fang, oh God! She's gonna be okay!" I jumped up and threw my arms around him. His body stiffened into the unbending statue that is Fang. Not at all like the night before. But no matter! Angel was going to be okay!

"I said maybe, Max. Don't get your hopes up," Fang reminded me.

_Don't let others bring you down, not even Fang. _

**Don't talk about Fang! **

After a moments silence, the Voice said, _She'll need blood, Maximum. _

**I can do that! **I shouted mentally. Even my unnatural fear of needles couldn't stop me from doing whatever I could to help Angel.

_Not your blood, Maximum. Haven't you seen what you blood has done to Fang?_

**What do you mean? **Was something wrong with Fang? I turned to stare fixedly at him. He was searching my face.

_You've not noticed the change? Maximum, you need to start recognizing the differences around you. They are the key. You have severely altered Fang's destiny. _

**What do you mean, Fang's destiny? And a key for what? Buried treasure? You mean Fang has super speed too? That's why he's been so fast! **

_Aye aye. _I swear I heard the Voice chuckle.

"She's gonna need blood," I said. And if she couldn't have mine…then she couldn't have Fang's, right? "Ig? You up for it?" His sightless eyes fell on me and he nodded quickly. I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Things were going to be okay. I just knew they were.

"Max!" Kaylynn called from down the hall. Where was her son? Man, that kid has a knack for disappearing! Are they sure he isn't invisible too? "Can one of you kids give some blood?" Iggy stood up and placed Nudge in my lap. How he knew exactly where I was, I have no idea.

"I will," Iggy said. Kaylynn led him down the hallway to drain his blood.

"You really think Angel's gonna be okay?" Nudge asked, her hazel eyes hopeful.

"Yeah, I do," I said truthfully. She wiped the tears off her cheeks, a new light in her eyes. The four of us sat in the waiting room while we waited for Iggy to come back. Nudge said she needed to get some food and went to find a vending machine. She came back with five bags of mini pretzels. We each took one and I held onto the one meant for Iggy. It's amazing how Nudge can eat at the worst of times.

About twenty minutes later, Iggy came walking slowly down the hall, led by a young guy in a turquoise get-up. I looked him over, checking for anything that would give him away as an eraser. He seemed okay, so I let him lead Iggy down the hall. Ig didn't look very sure on his feet, stumbling every few yards. Guess they drained a little too much red stuff.

"You okay?" Gazzy asked when Iggy sat down. Iggy nodded slowly.

"Just a little dizzy," he said. "They gave me some juice to help." I handed him the bag of pretzels. Mine was still sealed. Everyone's were. Well, except ya know, Nudge's.

"Did they tell you anything about Angel?" I asked.

"They said she was in critical condition, obviously. And she lost a _lot _of blood. So I gave two pints. And she's in the OR 4. I guess I walked right by it. They're working to remove the bullet and fix all the damage in-" he was interrupted by a voice over the loudspeaker.

"Code Blue, in OR 4! Repeat, code blue in operation room four!" The flocks eyes grew as wide as basketballs and my bag of pretzels hit the floor with a crunch.

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Review, bitte! Be happyyyy.


	18. Horribly Giddy Laughter

**Running to Stand Still: Of course Angel can die! She isn't immortal!!! Mensch! Yaaay sugar rush!!!**

**amsrule: mmmkay here it is!**

**marie47: you shall find out, my deeah. **

* * *

VH

Chapter 18

Max POV

Just because I grew up in a cage doesn't mean I don't know what code blue means. Fear paralyzed my body, making motion unobtainable.

"Ig-Iggy, didn't you just say Angel was in that room…?" Nudge asked vaguely. We all knew what code blue meant. An uncharacteristic fear had captured us all.

**Oh, God! Please let her be okay! **I silently begged. Couldn't one thing just go right for once?

"Why doesn't anything _ever _go our way?!" Gazzy suddenly yelled. Fresh tears poured from his still pink eyes. He stood up in the waiting room and began to stomp around. "Erasers! Whitecoats! Poisons! Ari and his stupid gun!" he yelled. His shaking form paced across the room. I was still sitting in my chair, unable to move anything. In fact, I don't think I've blinked yet. I felt horrible. There was absolutely nothing I could do. Code blue either meant that Angel's heart had stopped, or that she quit breathing, or in some other awful way, Angel was facing certain death. And there wasn't a thing I could do to help her.

I was staring at Iggy. Not even tears had managed to escape my eyes. Nothing seemed to be working. My only thought was **God, let her be okay! I'd do _anything!_** Over and over again, I mentally pleaded. If there was a God. But I think there might be. So I begged for my Angel. My sweet little Angel, who didn't deserve to be shot. To have her short, horrible little life stolen from her so suddenly.

_Anything, Maximum? _My Voice asked. It wasn't being rude at all. It actually seemed to care. I almost laughed out loud at the thought. In fact, a small smile did peak out; for a second. Then it was gone. And _that_, made me feel like Fang. And that actually _did_ make me laugh. I starting laughing and everyone's horrified faces snapped toward me.

But I couldn't stop. Horribly giddy laughter kept spilling out. I clutched my hands to my stomach and fell to the carpeted floor. What was that saying? We must laugh to keep from crying? I don't know, but it seemed appropriate. So I laughed. I turned my angry, bitter, and sad feelings into totally impulsive giggles. And they just kept coming. Like disgusting laugh vomit.

Everything was a test, a game. And games are fun, right? Wrong. Games are not fun. Games are sick and twisted. Only one person comes out on top. And obviously, that person was not meant to be me. We kill each other while climbing to the top, literally. And Angel had just lost. And if Angel had just lost, I'd lost. We were a team. All six of us were a team. Seven, if dogs count.

It was disgusting how I kept laughing. Rolling on the floor with my hands curled at my abdomen. I could feel everyone's eyes glued on me. They're probably wondering what the heck I was on. No, they probably thought it was finally time to chuck me in the loony bin. And Fang was gonna lead the way. Maybe I have lost it. After all, I just heard that my baby was basically dead, and now I'm laughing my stomach up. But laughter made my eyes water and pretty soon I was bawling.

"Max…" I heard Fang whisper. His voice was husky with emotion. I couldn't tear my eyelids apart. Hot tears just wormed their way through the creases and onto my cheeks.

"Angel…" I moaned. I rolled over and my face hit a shoe. Fang's shoe. His hands gently encircled my arms and pulled me up onto his lap. I was limp as a rag doll and sobs raked my body. He nudged my head into his shoulder. Speaking of Nudge…I opened my eyes a crack to look around. The room was empty. Only Fang and I were in the waiting room.

"They went to the operation room," Fang whispered. How had I not heard them leaving? Oh, right. Guess that was during my laugh attack.

Tears were still streaming from my eyes, but I felt more attached. To my surroundings anyway. Fang was holding me tight. Was I seeing a pattern here? Fang only showed affection when I was the only one around. Whatever.

Fang rested his head on top of mine. His breathing sounded slightly ragged. But it could have just been my imagination. His dry lips pressed to my forehead. They lingered for a second longer than would have seemed necessary.

"Fang, I-" I said, unsure of what to do or say. His dark eyes looked down at me.

"What is it?" he asked. His ropy arms held me tighter in a comforting way.

"There's nothing I can do! I can't do anything to help her! The only people around here who can, are in there, and even they might not be able to save her!" I said in a rush. Every word seemed to run into the next. "If we were in a fight, I could do something. Here, I'm so totally useless. I mean, there is absolutely nothing I can do."

"I get it, I feel the same way," he said, avoiding my eyes.

"Why won't you look in my eyes?" I asked. I knew the reason. He didn't want me to see his emotion. Though I couldn't see why now was different then a few minutes ago. Fang would always be a mystery to me.

He brought his eyes back to mine. Something was there that I couldn't place. An emotion that I'd seen before, but not in those eyes. Not in Fang's eyes.

"Angel will be okay, no matter what happens." In a flash, his mouth was pressed on mine.

_That emotion is called love, Maximum. _

Chapter Nineteen

Max POV

"Max! Fang! They got it under control, come out here so you can tell me what's happening," Iggy's voice pulled Fang's lips off of mine. Iggy couldn't possibly know what we were doing, but it was still embarrassing. My cheeks flushed and Fang's jaw stiffened.

"Come on," Fang said. He grabbed my hand and tilted me onto the floor. I was in his _lap _after all. We followed Iggy down a hallway toward the O.R.'s.

The room had an observation balcony for family and other doctors. We pushed our way into the throng of curious doctors and nurses. Fang and I made our way to the window, and stood next to our flock. I looked down and saw my baby asleep under the knife. Half a dozen doctors and nurses were huddled around her, various metal instruments strewn about the room. Angel looked so mind numbingly helpless it made my heart constrict.

"What happened?" I asked Nudge.

"I think her heart stopped, but they brought some people in and got it goin' again," she replied. Thankfully she shut herself up without me having to glare at her. I nodded at her and continued to stare down at my little Angel. The doctors looked stressed and hesitant. Couldn't blame 'em. If I was operating on a mutant freak, I'd probably wig out too.

After the first hour of just staring, I had to get out of that cramped space. I'd put up with my paranoid ways to be able to see my baby, but standing here pressed up against all these people was really getting to me. So I'd pushed my way out of the small room and took a walk. Before I'd gotten five yards down the hall, Fang was at my side.

"Too many people," I said. He nodded. We strolled casually down the hall, numbly glancing at the "happy" pictures on the walls. "So, um, Fang?" I asked, not looking at him. My cheeks turned pink.

"Yeah?" he said warily. His long legs shot out in front of him as he walked down the hallway.

"Never mind," I said. Bringing up the kiss seemed to weird. Besides, I'd done the same to him not too long ago. Our pinkies touched momentarily, and I took the advantage to grab his hand. He didn't pull away, but squeezed my hand. I smiled. His lips turned in a real smile. A small one, but for Fang! That's like, channel four news!

"I, um, I never said anything err, back, did I?" I stammered. How's that for eloquent? Fang looked at me blankly. He wasn't gonna make this easy.

"Excuse me?" he said. I stopped walking.

Taking a deep breath, I spilled. "That I love you too." I stared him straight in the eyes. Chocolate brown eyes glistened happily. He gave me one of his rare light up the world smiles. I couldn't help but smile back. He pressed his lips to my forehead and put me in a huge hug. Not exactly the reaction I'd expected. Maybe shrieking and running away. Well, he did say it first.

"Umm, Fang?" I gasped.

Without pulling away, he mumbled, "Yeah?"

"Well, nothing I guess. I just didn't expect this from Mr. Cool. What happened to the unbending statue?" I teased.

"He went out for awhile," he whispered back. I smiled and wrapped my arms around his back, breathing in his familiar scent.

"But," I said, putting Fang at arms length, "I just don't have time for a boyfriend right now. What with saving the world and all." His eyes narrowed slightly at me, but he smiled all the same.

_When will you start taking your destiny seriously? _

I inwardly rolled my eyes. **When you start giving my some straight answers. **I retorted. A frustrated sigh could almost be heard in my head. But the connection between Voice and emotion was almost nonexistent, so it might have been my imagination.

"Voice?" Fang asked. His face was placid, back to normal again.

I nodded. We didn't talk beyond that because a green smocked doctor walked up behind us.

"Are you Ariel's family?" She asked. Again, I nodded. "She's out of surgery. You can go see her one at a time in the ICU, but she won't be out of the anesthetic for awhile." She tucked a pen in her front pocket before continuing. She looked up at Fang. "Where you in here yesterday?" she asked. Fang folded his arms, his muscles tensing. Where was she getting with this?

"I heard rumors," she went on. "Someone with your description, they say." Seeing that Fang wasn't going to respond, she changed directions. "Ariel is in room 505. Down that hall. I believe Jeff is in there with…Zepher, at the moment." With a nod, she brushed past us and walked briskly down the hall.

Once she was out of earshot, I turned back to Fang. "Think they called the FBI yet?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough," he replied.

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Review, bitte, and be happpppy! Kinda not really a cliffie?


	19. That I love you too

**MaxRideObsessed: Well of _course _I keep bringing Angel back! She may be evil, but she's only six! She's got a dreadful life ahead of her. Why take that away? Well, I suppose it's a bit soon to be sayin that. Considering this next chapter...muahaha...**

**Myrah: Unhealthy? I would take that over crying anyday. Laughing would be a good coping strategy as long as it's not done in another grievers face. And HECK YES real FAX!!**

**Running to Stand Still: Yaaay! It was a pleasure making your day! I AM happy. I've been stressed all day and is a good place to release...writing anyway. And I would rather you not bawl or damn me to Hell. It's awfully uncomfortable and I am glad to be rid of the place. **

**XXmaxXX: Well my deeah, it's a bummer you don't like Faxness, I LOVE, repeat, LOVE FAXNESS!! **

**Marie47: Good, I am very glad you likey. **

**Aqua279: Of course there will be more. Even a sequel yet! Sorry it's been taking so long. I don't TRY to hold you all out. So here 'tis. **

Chapter nineteen

Max POV

"Max! Fang! They got it under control, come out here so you can tell me what's happening," Iggy's voice pulled Fang's lips off of mine. Iggy couldn't possibly know what we were doing, but it was still embarrassing. My cheeks flushed and Fang's jaw stiffened.

"Come on," Fang said. He grabbed my hand and tilted me onto the floor. I was in his _lap _after all. We followed Iggy down a hallway toward the O.R.'s.

The room had an observation balcony for family and other doctors. We pushed our way into the throng of curious doctors and nurses. Fang and I made our way to the window, and stood next to our flock. I looked down and saw my baby asleep under the knife. Half a dozen doctors and nurses were huddled around her, various metal instruments strewn about the room. Angel looked so mind numbingly helpless it made my heart constrict.

"What happened?" I asked Nudge.

"I think her heart stopped, but they brought some people in and got it goin' again," she replied. Thankfully she shut herself up without me having to glare at her. I nodded at her and continued to stare down at my little Angel. The doctors looked stressed and hesitant. Couldn't blame 'em. If I was operating on a mutant freak, I'd probably wig out too.

After the first hour of just staring, I had to get out of that cramped space. I'd put up with my paranoid ways to be able to see my baby, but standing here pressed up against all these people was really getting to me. So I'd pushed my way out of the small room and took a walk. Before I'd gotten five yards down the hall, Fang was at my side.

"Too many people," I said. He nodded. We strolled casually down the hall, numbly glancing at the "happy" pictures on the walls. "So, um, Fang?" I asked, not looking at him. My cheeks turned pink.

"Yeah?" he said warily. His long legs shot out in front of him as he walked down the hallway.

"Never mind," I said. Bringing up the kiss seemed to weird. Besides, I'd done the same to him not too long ago. Our pinkies touched momentarily, and I took the advantage to grab his hand. He didn't pull away, but squeezed my hand. I smiled. His lips turned in a real smile. A small one, but for Fang! That's like, channel four news!

"I, um, I never said anything err, back, did I?" I stammered. How's that for eloquent? Fang looked at me blankly. He wasn't gonna make this easy.

"Excuse me?" he said. I stopped walking.

Taking a deep breath, I spilled. "That I love you too." I stared him straight in the eyes. Chocolate brown eyes glistened happily. He gave me one of his rare light up the world smiles. I couldn't help but smile back. He pressed his lips to my forehead and put me in a huge hug. Not exactly the reaction I'd expected. Maybe shrieking and running away. Well, he did say it first.

"Umm, Fang?" I gasped.

Without pulling away, he mumbled, "Yeah?"

"Well, nothing I guess. I just didn't expect this from Mr. Cool. What happened to the unbending statue?" I teased.

"He went out for awhile," he whispered back. I smiled and wrapped my arms around his back, breathing in his familiar scent.

"But," I said, putting Fang at arms length, "I just don't have time for a boyfriend right now. What with saving the world and all." His eyes narrowed slightly at me, but he smiled all the same.

_When will you start taking your destiny seriously? _

I inwardly rolled my eyes. **When you start giving my some straight answers. **I retorted. A frustrated sigh could almost be heard in my head. But the connection between Voice and emotion was almost nonexistent, so it might have been my imagination.

"Voice?" Fang asked. His face was placid, back to normal again.

I nodded. We didn't talk beyond that because a green smocked doctor walked up behind us.

"Are you Ariel's family?" She asked. Again, I nodded. "She's out of surgery. You can go see her one at a time in the ICU, but she won't be out of the anesthetic for awhile." She tucked a pen in her front pocket before continuing. She looked up at Fang. "Where you in here yesterday?" she asked. Fang folded his arms, his muscles tensing. Where was she getting with this?

"I heard rumors," she went on. "Someone with your description, they say." Seeing that Fang wasn't going to respond, she changed directions. "Ariel is in room 505. Down that hall. I believe Jeff is in there with…Zepher, at the moment." With a nod, she brushed past us and walked briskly down the hall.

Once she was out of earshot, I turned back to Fang. "Think they called the FBI yet?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Guess we'll find out soon enough," he replied.

----$$----&&------!!---- (no, that's not cussing)

REview!!!!! If we get to...say...95 reviews, I'll post the next chapter!!! Okay, night night ya'll!


	20. Whitecoat Unvieled

**I would just like to apologize to everyone for the chapter mix up. I couldn't figure out what happened for quite a while. But then I figure it out. For anyone who didn't see that I posted two chapters in one, I posted 18 and 19 on number 19. So here is 20 all quick and easy like. Enjoy. So sorry. Lo siento everyone. **

Chapter Twenty

Max POV

"Wanna go see if _Jeff _and _Zepher _are done yet?" I asked with a grin. He nodded and grabbed my hand. We walked back toward the way we'd come.

We rounded a corner and almost ran into an auburn haired doctor. She looked to be in her late twenties.

"Pardon-" she said. "Max?" she inquired. I was thinking, "Do I know you?"

"Yeah?" I said instead, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I'm one of Ariel's doctors. I need to bring you up to date on Ariel's condition," she said, motioning to a door marked 'Doctor Ralter'. Sounds like Walter, huh?  
I nodded and she opened the door and let us in. Fang and I sat on the navy blue couch and Dr. Ralter sat behind the cheap metal desk in a blue swivel chair.

"Ariel's condition it quite serious, I'm sure you knew that. The bullet, remarkably, missed her heart by a fraction of an inch. We were able to remove the bullet and patch up all the internal damage. She lost a lot of blood, but we were able to keep her going with the blood Jeff donated. She's a tough little girl. The bullet penetrated alarmingly deep into her chest, barely missing her Aorta. Someone up there must really like your little sister," she said. **Up there? **

I took that moment to look around her office. She had a small crucifix on the wall, hanging above the door. A bible was on her desk, open to a page toward the back of the book. **Oh, up _there. _**The rest of the room was clad in shades of blue and gray. Nothing too interesting. A few medical degrees on the walls, some family photos. Those did seize my interest.

She had four kids and a slim husband. They sat on a boulder, in what looked like a desert. I felt my eyebrow quirk. Three boys and a girl. The boys looked like photocopies of their father, maybe four, eight, and fourteen. Whoa, she is so _not _twenty! The girl looked like her mother. Long rusty colored hair, and bright freckles. Her mother was gorgeous, the doc, I mean. I couldn't help but think I'd seen her before…but I couldn't place her. Something about her heavy brown eyes and tired face was setting me off. Making me uncomfortable.

"Max," Fang whispered, squeezing my hand ever so gently. I realized I'd been glaring at the picture on the doctor's desk.

Shaking my head, I mumbled, "Sorry. How long until Ariel is up and goin' again?" The doctor smiled sweetly at me. The smile was alarmingly familiar too. Red flashy lights started going off in my brain.

"Not for a while. Her surgery was quite extensive. At the very least a month." Her tone was sickly sweet. Making me want to retch.

_Maximum-_ the Voice started, but I knew what it was about to say.

**I know, we need to get out of here! **

_Ma- _

**I know! **I mentally screamed, struggling to keep my outside cool and collected.

I looked to Fang. He was incredibly tense. He sensed it too. His palm felt sweaty next to mine.

"Uhh…we'd kinda just like to go see Ariel, now," I said, trying to sound normal.

"Of course," she said, standing to open the door. We practically ran out of the room and down to Angel. We found the room and opened the door as quietly as mutantly possible while trying to hurry.

The rest of the flock was in there with Angel. She was out like a light in the pale room. Her blonde curls were slick with sweat. Various machines chirped around her.

"She made it Max!" Nudge said.

"Yeah, thanks Nudge, I see that," I said, trying not to sound too mean. Total was curled up by Angel's side, licking her thumb. Gross.

**Any ideas, Voice? **

_Maximum, you cannot take Angel away from here. She needs the medical help. _

**It's not safe here! I know that doctor from somewhere, but I can't remember where! **

_She was a 'whitecoat' as you so charmingly put it. Participating in your early developmental stages. _My eyes widened. I knew it! Smug know-it-all'ness shifted into shear terror. Whitecoats were operating on my Angel. Whitecoats were pumping God knows what into my baby. There were so many tubes connected to her that she looked like a machine herself. My breathing quickened to the point where I had to stop and get control of myself. I'm Maximum Ride. Leader of the flock, and it wasn't time to fall apart. If anyone could get out of this, I could.

I was so lost in my own thoughts that it took me a moment to realize Fang was waving his hand in front of my face.

"What?" I asked, managing to stay patient.

"What are we gonna do?" he asked, voice low and eyes determined; ready to do whatever I commanded. I didn't know. We either stay here, let the whitecoats mess with Angel, or break out with Angel…and watch her die without proper medical care? Both choices sucked!

"I, umm…" I stammered. What was best to do? Be captured by whitecoats again, them with their stupid drugs; or lose Angel…?

_Go on, Maximum. What **will**_ _you do? _

Reviewwwwwww bitte, even though I have been so dissappointing...please. Make me happy I am feeling blue. I would like to feel purple. Make it happen.


	21. That's my Fang

**LuvEdwardC- Well Whitecoats MUST be a part of the story! They are the root of all evil here. **

**Talon - Wings and a Pulse- I have to say I love your ID. It's creative. **

**Running to Stand Still- You ate it? I'll take that as "hate". Heh. I know both decisions suck! That's why I put them in there! Muahaha, and sorry It took FOREVER to update. I'll try to be better. **

**amsrule- Sorry it took so long, but here it is!**

**Aqua279- Bitte is German for Please. Be nice to me for not posting sooner, bitte. **

**lildragonpet- YEah, I know I messed up a bit on Iggy's POV. I am excited that you like my story and will try to be posting more often now. And Angel is not sweet!!!! She is the spawn of Satan! No, not really, but she has an evil half. **

Voice POV (I saw someone else use this POV and couldn't resist)

My two favorite girls have finally met. I was surprised at this twist of fate. I know what you must be thinking; don't you know everything? You flatter me, but no. I know many things, but it is impossible to know everything.

"Go on, Maximum. What _will _you do?" I prodded. She's once again let her feelings toward her flock overtake her. It'll be the death of her, I know it will. I don't _know_, but it only seems sensible. Truthfully, I don't know what her ultimate fate is. That, has been concealed from me.

_I, uh, I don't know…_ she admitted. Not once had I heard her think that or say that. I was taken aback. Speechless, actually. _Either way, we're screwed. _

"Maximum, you aren't _screwed. _There is more to this than you know. Dr. Ralter is not who you think she is," I said. That was too much, but I couldn't take it back now.

_What!? _She hissed. _You just told me she's a whitecoat! Make up your mind! _

"Is _that _what I said?" I retorted. That is most definitely not what I had said.

_Yes; that's what you said! _She screamed, giving me a headache. I decided to let her think about it and ceased conversation. She's not the only one effected by our conversations. She doesn't know what is costs me just to speak to her; no one does.

She huffed and began to talk to Fang.

Max POV

"I'm _so_ confused!" I said, holding out my arms in the universal 'what the heck' gesture. Fang looked at me, as did the rest of the flock, not Angel of course.

"About what?" Nudge asked. She was munching on a pretzel.

"The Voice was telling me that-" Fang cut me off by grabbing my arm.

"Maybe they don't need to know what the Voice said…" he warned. He was probably right. They probably didn't need to be worried about the doctors being whitecoats either until I decided what to do. "Uhh…" I recovered oh so smoothly.

Iggy looked mad, Nudge was focused on another pretzel, and the Gasman was half asleep. "Be right back," I promised, taking Fang out into the hallway.

"What did the Voice say?" he asked.

"Okay, you were getting weird vibes off that doctor, right?" He nodded a yes. Maybe a heck yes. "Well, the Voice said that she was a whitecoat. Then, it said it didn't say that!" I rolled my eyes.

"It said she was a whitecoat and then said she wasn't…?" he repeated. I nodded, then stopped.

"No, it said she was a whitecoat, and when I said we're screwed 'cause either way we go, we'll lose something. Then it said we weren't screwed because the doctor isn't who we thought she was. So I got mad and told it to make up it's mind, she was either a whitecoat or she wasn't. And it said 'Is that what I said?' and of course that's what it said!" I growled under my breath and rolled my neck. Fang was silent for a while. Rambling doesn't work well on me.

"It said that the doctor was a whitecoat, but isn't who we think she is." I nodded. I said that already. "She _was _a whitecoat. Maybe she isn't anymore. I remember her from a long time ago, back at the lab. But I don't remember her anywhere after the time that Jeb first put us all together…" he said slowly. Is that possible? Can you just, _not _be a whitecoat after you've been one? Don't they have, like, a scientist brotherhood; once a sicko always a sicko? Too much what if's were noisily pushing their way into my brain. It made my head hurt. I put a hand to my forehead in an attempt to stem the throbbing.

"Is that possible?" I ask aloud. Fang shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"I don't know, but what are we doing to do about Angel? A month is like, what? A week in mutant freak healing time?" he guessed. I thought so, so I nodded.

"I-" I started. Fang's eyes bored into me, asking me to go on. God! I hate looking so weak. But I really don't know what to do. "I, I don't know what to do." My voice comes out barely above a whisper. Fang's lips quirk in a small smile. He takes my hands in his, rubbing the tops of my hands with his thumbs. I'm too upset to smile. Seeing this, Fang gets serious.

"You want me to help…?" he coaxes. I feel my teeth grind together. Yes, I want your help. I need your help.

I nod a barely noticeable nod. Good thing Fang's the master of imperceptible nods and gestures.

He smiles again. It's a dazzling smile that makes my skin tighten with Goosebumps. My breath quickens as his face nears mine. A smile still plays at his lips. Not three seconds later, Fang and I are kissing again. It's a soft but passionate kiss. Years of feelings packed into one kiss.

I hardly notice a soft clicking noise behind me. Fang's mouth stops moving with mine and I'm left wondering why. His eyes are staring behind me, toward the clicking sound. I turn around, bracing myself for the worst.

It's Nudge, Iggy, and Gazzy. Great! Nudge had her hands on her hips and was insistently tapping her foot on the ground. Hence, the clacky noise. Gazzy was trying not to laugh and Iggy looked disgusted.

"Was I right?" I heard Total's voice from the hospital room. I rolled my eyes in his direction, frustrated that he couldn't see it.

"Yeah, they were makin' out in the hall!" Nudge called back. Total chuckled loudly from his position next to Angel. "Total heard you guys. So we came out to see if he was right. And he was! What does that mean? Are you guys together now? 'Cause it sure looks like you guys are. I mean-" My tongue wasn't working, so I couldn't defend or deny anything. Thankfully Fang stepped up.

"Nudge," he said with extreme calmness. "It means…" he faltered here for a second. Wait, what did this mean? Are we boyfriend, girlfriend? "…that Max is my girlfriend." Oh. Actually, I'm okay with that. I smiled briefly at the three of them. Fang grabbed my hand again, as if to prove his point. His face was impassive, as usual around the flock. I realized, smiles were something he did just for me. He knew how much they lit up my world.

Nudge squealed. I couldn't help but think that Angel would be doing the exact same thing if she could. I remember how she once said that Fang and I would be perfect together. She was five then. Sadness overswept me. What were we gonna do?

"Max?" Gazzy piped up. "Are we gonna sleep here tonight?" I don't know! I wanted to scream. Sometimes being the leader was just more than I could handle. Actually, most times it was more than I could handle; but I did it. 'Cause that's what I do.

"We're staying here tonight, Gaz. Angel is gonna need at least a week to recover, so we're gonna have to stay here." Gazzy looks relieved. Did he really think we were going to leave Angel here alone?

"Um, okay. I'm gonna go lay down for a while." I nodded toward him and he walked back into the room. Iggy was right behind him, fingers hooked in Gazzy's belt loop. He gave us a squinty eyed look as he walked through the door. He whispered something to the Gasman and they both sniggered. I rolled my eyes at them again. Nudge smiled sweetly at us and turned on her heel, walking into the room in a modely fashion.

I turned around to face Fang again. He looked down at me and nudged me with his wing. I whipped around to see if anyone might have seen it in the narrow hallway. No one was around. Seriously, why is there a strangely low number of people in this hospital? Fang smirked at my reaction. For the fourth time, I rolled my eyes. Still holding his hand, I led him back into Angel's room.

We all took a spot in the double patient room and fell asleep. Fang insisted on taking watch; I let him. That's my Fang. Just kidding.

**Review and be nice to me for not posting sooner...bitte. Stay tuned!!!!**


	22. Dream State

Chapter Twenty Two

Max POV

"Max!" her clear voice rings in my head. She's laughing, skipping around in a field of daisies. I smile at her. It's a sad smile, 'cause I know this is going to end soon. As soon as I open my eyes. I hate dreams. "You don't mean that," she calls sweetly.

"Not this time, Angel." I like this dream, it's true. Actually, it's the ending of a dream that I hate. Angel and I are skipping around in a never ending field of purple daisies. Any direction you look is flowing to the horizon with purple flowers. I've no idea where we are, but it's just a dream, so that's okay. It's just me and my Angel, laughing at nothing in particular. Or maybe everything.

"Do you miss me, Max?" I nod at her. We flop into the plushy surface of petals and lay there giggling. "I'll be awake soon. I really will, promise." I believe her.

"Angel, do you know what's going on around you? In the hospital?" I ask. She contacted me, in this dream. I swear, her powers seem limitless.

"They are," she says matter-of-factly. A weight settles on my chest. What does that mean? "It means my powers are limitless." Her tone is a total 'Duh' tone. The weight gets heavier.

She starts to laugh again. "Max, limitless in the dream…" I manage a small laugh. That kinda freaks me out. "Why?" she asks. I let out a long breath and accidentally knock a butterfly off its course. It flutters away quickly.

"Angel, I don't know. It's just, your powers have a dangerous potential. Mind control is…unethical." She frowns up at the sky then lifts her finger toward it. With her index finger, she draws a dog in the sky. As her finger moves, it leaves a trail of cloud behind. Like a jet. It's cool, so I try it. I draw a star. And it works. A huge cloud star holds its form in the clear blue sky.

"What's _unethical_?" she asks, drawing another animal in the sky. A fish.

"It's not right, not how things should be." Unethical. You could sum up my whole childhood into that word.

"Oh…" she sighs, jumping to her feet. She extends a hand to me. I take it and she helps me up. "Let's play!" All hard feelings are totally forgotten. The beauty of dreamland. I smile and leap into the air. Apparently my takeoff skills have greatly improved in my subconscious. Angel springs up next to me and we fly around in the now purple sky.

"Angel?" I call, she looks at me with widespread joy plastered all over her face. "Why is everything in your dream state, purple?" She grins.

"My new favorite color is purple!" With a high pitched shriek, she dives toward the ground. Pulling out of the nosedive at the last possible second, she surges back toward me. I do the same, but go skyward a mile or so first. Using my superspeed, I dive at the ground. Feeling the ultimate rush of adrenaline course through my veins gives me the ultimate high. I break the fall the moment before impact. I speed back up to Angel who's begun to make a cloud castle.

Folding in my wings, I drop down on the cloud beside her. She hums while she molds the castle with a six year old's style of architecture. I smile at her, watching her have fun. Being at peace. Is this what all her dreams are like?

"Not all of them. Sometimes I dream about Total, or Celeste, or my friends from when we stayed at Anne's," she says, never taking her eyes off the growing castle. "I like this, Max. I like being able to play and stuff with you when we don't have to worry about Erasers. It's fun."

"Yeah, it is. When did you get this skill?" I ask, referring to her bringing me into her dream.

She shrugged. "I dunno. I was tired of being unconscious, so I just tried it. And it worked!" She smiled, eyes fixed on the cloud formation. Are we going to keep getting new powers? Or is this just another aspect of Angel's mind control? She shrugged again.

My hand started to itch. Angel's eyes flew up to my arm. She looked a little panicked. I gave her a weird look as the itch spread up my arm. "Ow!" I suddenly cried as the itch turned to a sharp biting feeling. Now Angel was muttering something under her breath. She was still staring, no, glaring, at my arm.

"No!" She grabbed my tingling arm and the pain got worse. My face grimaced as I tried not to cry out again. "No! I want you to stay!" she pleaded.

"Angel! What is this?!" I ask frantically. The biting sensation coursed through my chest and into my neck. I couldn't help but claw at my torso and arm.

"Please stay, Max!" she begs. What am I doing? Where am I going? I don't _want _to go anywhere! My body starts to seize and it feels like someone is violently shaking me. "Max!" Angel screams. The purple atmosphere fades away. Angel's body disappears in a vapor. Another body takes her place in a totally different world.

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**Sorry It's been an eternity since I posted. But review, bitte. **


	23. End in Sight?

Max POV

"Wake up! Max…" Fang's voice calls. He's shaking me on a hospital armchair. For a second I'm extremely disoriented. One moment I'm in dream world with Angel, and now I'm in the hospital staring up at Fang.

Fang visibly relaxes as I open my eyes. He straightens up and lets out a small sigh of relief. I sit up in the chair and look around at the flock. They're still sleeping, but Angel's face is the one that catches my eye. Her expression is caught between strangulation and sadness.

Jumping out of the chair, I rush to Angel's side. "Angel, sweetie, I'm right here," I say, grasping her trembling hand. Her whole body relaxes as I speak. She's probably still in the dream, wanting me to come back. Note to self: yell at Fang for waking me up, later.

"What's going on?" Fang asked as he walked up behind me. He placed a hand on my shoulder. I winced, still trying to shake off the dreamy weightlessness. He noticed and retracted his hand as if I was red hot.

Angel stopped fidgeting under the thin hospital linens. I let go of her hand and turned to look at Fang just as Dr. Ralter walked in. Crap. Fang and I both went rigid. She didn't seem to notice. She glided over toward Angel and checked a monitor before looking at me.

She smiled. "Everything looks fine. But I'm afraid Ariel isn't coming out of the anesthesia as hoped. She should have woken up a few hours ago." I desperately tried to keep my face placid, like Fang's.

"Is that terrible?" I asked. No doubt this ex-whitecoat had something to do with this.

"She isn't…" a raspy voice whispered from behind me. I whirled around to see Angel blinking rapidly. "She's not a whitecoat…" she said. My rigid body went to butter.

"Angel!" I gasped. "You're awake!" She smiled. I glanced up at the auburn haired doctor. She looked confused. "Max," Angel whispered. "She doesn't remember being a whitecoat…" Well that made sense. I didn't think that the school would just let a person walk away with all those illegal details. Angel nodded, then coughed.

"Ariel, I'd like to ask you a few questions about how you are feeling right now. Are you up for that?" the doctor asked. Angel nodded again. So she and the doctor talked for awhile.

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And the rest of our stay at the hospital went smoothly. No one called the feds, no whitecoats showed up, or erasers. We were there for five days, not as long as we'd thought we'd be there. Angel found out that Dr. Ralter hadn't seen her husband in eight years, about the time that we quit seeing Dr. Ralter around the school. Coincidence? I think not. He's probably some filthy whitecoat experimenting on defenseless little kids. Jerk.

And I made a decision. IT was time to end the madness.

We left the hospital in the night, so no one would see us flying off. We headed toward Texas. At least I hope we were headed toward Texas. Why Texas? Let's say a little birdie told me that great fortune (aka harsh destiny) awaited me there. I wanted this over with. Enough of my flock being tortured and almost killed. It was time to 'save the world.' I argued with the voice after Angel woke up, but all that resulted in was a vicious brain attack. So I decided to go (More like, was forced to go). So that's where we're going now.

Look out, Austin, here we come!

End

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Yeah it's the end. There is a sequel...but I got tired of writing it. Review and tell me if you want more story. IF not, I won't be posting more on here. 


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